Atletico Madrid’s Mateu Alemany travels to London to pursue Nicolas Jackson loan

When your starting striker goes down injured, you don’t send an email. You book a flight. That’s exactly what Atletico Madrid’s Director of Men’s Professional Football, Mateu Alemany, has done, traveling to London in person to try to hammer out a loan deal for Chelsea forward Nicolas Jackson.

The 25-year-old Senegalese international has become one of the more intriguing transfer sagas of the summer window, with multiple clubs circling a player Chelsea signed from Villarreal back in 2023 for roughly £32 million. The problem for Atletico: they may not be first in line.

Why Atletico needs Jackson now

The urgency behind Alemany’s trip comes down to one name: Alexander Sørloth. The Norwegian striker’s injury has left a significant gap in Diego Simeone’s attack, and the window is ticking.

Atletico aren’t looking to write a massive check. Their preference is a loan arrangement, ideally with some kind of option structure built in. That’s a reasonable ask for a player who just returned from a season-long loan at Bayern Munich, where he failed to trigger any permanent buy clause.

Alemany, who took on the Atletico role in October 2025, has been tasked with navigating exactly these kinds of situations.

Chelsea’s asking price and Jackson’s contract leverage

Chelsea’s negotiating position is, predictably, aggressive. The club reportedly values Jackson at £60-65 million for any permanent transfer, roughly double what they paid Villarreal three years ago. That’s a price tag in the neighborhood of €69-70 million, which helps explain why most interested parties are exploring loan routes instead.

The Blues can afford to be patient. Jackson is contracted to Chelsea until 2033, giving the club an extraordinary amount of leverage. For Jackson himself, Chelsea generated £14.3 million in loan fees from his stint at Bayern last season, showing there’s real revenue to be generated even without a permanent sale.

Aston Villa looms as the bigger threat

Atletico’s challenge isn’t just convincing Chelsea. It’s beating Aston Villa to the punch. Reports from mid-August consistently position Villa as the frontrunner in the Jackson sweepstakes.

As of reports from around August 17-20, 2026, no deal has been finalized with any club. The window remains open, and Jackson’s future is still genuinely uncertain. Multiple clubs continue monitoring the situation, which gives Chelsea the luxury of playing interested parties against each other.