Portsmouth have signed the Chelsea winger Ryan Kavuma-McQueen on a season-long loan.
The 17-year-old is a product of Chelsea's academy and has made one senior appearance for the club, in a 7-0 win over Port Vale in the FA Cup. He signed his first professional contract with the west London club in January, and was named among the substitutes for Champions League matches against Paris St-Germain and Ajax last season, as well as in Chelsea's Premier League squads against Liverpool and Tottenham. At Portsmouth he will compete for a place in the wide areas alongside the new signing Abu Kamara, Josh Murphy, Harvey Blair, Eoin Kenny and Luke Brooke-Smith.
"We've been in the market for wingers for quite a while and Ryan ticks all the boxes of the profile of player that we want to bring in," the Portsmouth manager John Mousinho said. "He's quick, direct, can play off both sides and he's only 17 so that probably tells you how highly we rate him and how highly Chelsea rate him. We've tracked him throughout his youth career and he made the step up last year into the 21s side so we're really excited to get him through the door."
Kavuma-McQueen is regarded as one of the most promising attackers to come through Chelsea's academy in recent years. The club moved to secure his first professional contract last season amid interest from elsewhere, keen to avoid a repeat of the situation that saw Rio Ngumoha leave for Liverpool in 2024. He had already established himself as one of Premier League 2's most dangerous attackers at the age of 16, and scored four goals for England Under-17s in a 7-5 win over Germany last September. Having made his senior debut and featured on Chelsea's pre-season tour, the loan to Portsmouth is his first taste of first-team football away from Cobham.