{"id":4908,"date":"2026-05-06T15:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=4908"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:13:16","slug":"joao-pedro-joins-elite-chelsea-list-after-hitting-20-goal-mark-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=4908","title":{"rendered":"Joao Pedro Joins Elite Chelsea List After Hitting 20-Goal Mark This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \">\n                <\/aside>\n<p>            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">On Monday night, Joao Pedro made history by becoming the 11th player in the Premier League era to score 20 goals in a single season. The 24-year-old Brazilian reached the milestone with an amazing bicycle kick in stoppage time against Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge, even though the Blues lost 3-1 at home on matchday 35.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\">Pedro is now on a list of great players that includes Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Fernando Torres, Juan Mata, Diego Costa, Eden Hazard, and Cole Palmer. What makes the accomplishment even more impressive is that the former Brighton forward scored 15 goals in the Premier League and five more in the Champions League and FA Cup, and none of them came from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;letter-spacing: 0px\">The Brazilian has been the team\u2019s main goalscorer during a rough season. Pedro\u2019s late acrobatic goal ended Chelsea\u2019s Premier League goal drought of more than nine hours, but it didn\u2019t change the fact that Calum McFarlane\u2019s team hasn\u2019t won in six league games, which is their longest streak since 1993.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 data-path-to-node=\"5\">Barcelona Circle as Chelsea Insist Joao Pedro Is Not for Sale<\/h2>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">As expected, Joao Pedro\u2019s amazing first season in West London has drawn considerable attention across Europe. Barcelona are said to have seen him as a possible alternative if they miss out on Atletico Madrid\u2019s Julian Alvarez. The La Liga champions recognise Pedro as the perfect player to revamp their attack ahead of the 2026\/27 season, especially since Robert Lewandowski\u2019s long-term future is uncertain.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\">But Chelsea\u2019s management have quickly put an end to any rumours about a sale. Reports have revealed that the Blues have no plans to sell Joao Pedro this summer. BlueCo are counting on the Brazilian player now and in the future. The forward notably signed a long-term deal that will last until June 2033 when he moved from Brighton last summer for \u00a360 million.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">Sources say the player isn\u2019t thinking about leaving Chelsea; instead, he\u2019s focused on finishing the season strong and getting ready for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. His market value is said to have risen to as much as \u20ac100 million, so any potential buyer will have to splash that cash to get him away from Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \">\n                <\/aside>\n<p>            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday night, Joao Pedro made history by becoming the 11th player in the Premier&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}