Chelsea Make Chilean Youngster Fourth Signing of the Summer

Chelsea have confirmed that they have completed a deal to sign highly-rated youngster Cristian Cuevas from Chilean club O'Higgins.

The 18 year old put pen to paper on a long term contract that keeps him at the club until the summer of 2018 after initially impressing while on trial last year.

Cuevas came through the youth ranks at O'Higgins before breaking into the first team and representing the club in the top flight in Chile.

The left-back further impressed this summer while representing Chile at the Under20 World Cup where he featured in four of his nation's five games as the South Americans made it to the quarter-finals of the competition.

While Cuevas has primarily operated as a defender he can play on the left wing as he is naturally attack minded.

The diminutive defender is likely to be viewed as one for the future by new Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho who has made it clear that he will hand opportunities to his younger players this season.

The Chelsea youth side excelled last season but ultimately fell at the final hurdle, losing in the NextGen final to Aston Villa and in the FA Youth Cup final to Norwich City.

Cuevas is the club's fourth signing of the summer after Chelsea completed deals for German attacker Andre Schurrle, Dutch midfielder Marco van Ginkel and vastly experienced goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

The Blues are currently on tour in Asia and are preparing to face the BNI Indonesia All Stars on Thursday in Jakarta.

They have already played two games on the tour, defeating Singha All Stars 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Romelu Lukaku, and then claiming a 4-1 win over Malaysia All Star XI thanks to goals from Lukaku, Victor Moses, Kevin de Buyne and Bertrand Traore.