Atlanta United has finalized the heavily rumored deal seeing Caleb Wiley off to BlueCo’s Chelsea, marking another successful graduate of Atlanta’s academy pipeline. According to a number of reports, the young Atlanta native and homegrown will join Chelsea and then be loaned to BlueCo’s other team, RC Strasbourg in eastern France. The move is also another notch in Atlanta United’s wildly profitable summer, which has also seen Giorgos Giakoumakis make a move to Liga MX’s Cruz Azul, and Thiago Almada transfer to the Eagle Football Group’s Botafogo (with an imminent move to Lyon). The combined transfers have netted the Five Stripes approximately $50 million (and some GAM for cap space).
Caleb Wiley, 19, has been one of Atlanta United’s great success stories. He joined the Academy at 11 and was quite literally a ball boy in the 2018 MLS Cup when Atlanta defeated Portland, and rose rapidly through the second team while playing in USL Championship. It was there he truly showed his maturity beyond his years, and his penchant for not backing down from challenges – even against men twice his age. Gonzalo Pineda gave him his first MLS minutes in the 2022 opening match of the season, which saw him put the nail in the coffin of Sporting Kansas City when he scored Atlanta’s third goal of the match just minutes after debuting. It was a dream start for the young left back, and he rapidly became a prominent player and starter under Pineda.
While the fee for the transfer isn’t disclosed, reports from a variety of sources have noted it’s around $11 million total, including an Atlanta United sell-on fee per Fabrizio Romano. It’ll be a huge leap for Wiley as he takes the next step in his very young career – one that is already marked with plenty of U.S. international call-ups. He’s currently in Paris, France for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where he’s part of the small 18-man squad preparing to take on France, New Zealand, and Guinea.
“Caleb epitomizes the pathway that we envisioned when we started this club,” Vice President and Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra said. “Born and raised in Atlanta, he joined our Academy at 11 years old, played for ATL UTD 2 and went on to earn every step in his path up to signing as a Homegrown. Over that time, he debuted for the U.S. Men’s National Team and was chosen to represent our country at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Now he can continue his career at a top club in Europe. We wish Caleb the best in this next challenge of his career and look forward to following his journey. For our club moving forward, we’re continuing our efforts to immediately reinvest in the team during the Summer Transfer Window.”
For Atlanta’s part, that open left back spot will likely be filled by newcomer Pedro Amador, with Ronald Hernandez providing depth as needed.
Best of luck to you, Caleb, it’s been an absolute pleasure!
You can follow all the summer transfer news here via our transfer tracker!
| Get Atlanta United training ground updates, audio and video content you won’t see anywhere else, Discord access, and more. Support us on Patreon and help support independent soccer coverage here in Atlanta! Click here to start a 7-day free trial. |
[…] old and serving as a ball boy in the 2018 MLS Cup at the Benz against Portland, Atlanta United sold its second homegrown left-back talent overseas for a whopping $11 million (plus sell-on percent… Weeks later, Wiley was in Paris representing his country at the […]
[…] old and serving as a ball boy in the 2018 MLS Cup at the Benz against Portland, Atlanta United sold its second homegrown left-back talent overseas for a whopping $11 million (plus sell-on percent… Weeks later, Wiley was in Paris representing his country at the […]
I guess it doesn’t really matter but it’d have been cool if he’d have still been a member of Atlanta United for the Olympics
Good player…well deserved!! Good Luck!!
Always great to see one our “our guys” advance to an opportunity to chase his dreams.
Wiley’s one of my favorite players, and he has a massive ceiling. I hope I see him in the prem/la liga/UCL some day
If he can improve his defense AND his dribbling, he can be something else.
Being an AUFC and CFC fan, never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted an ATL homegrown would ever be sold to CFC. Congrats to Caleb. I hope he makes it onto the Stanford Bridge pitch one day.
Very best wishes for Caleb at Strasbourg. I had hoped Patrick Vieira would still be the manager, but he left last week. Ownership is very quick to fire managers and there’s speculation that in the end, the owners weren’t happy with the 23-24 results. I hope Caleb wins the starting job and I can see him play sometimes on Fanatiz. This can be a very very good move for Caleb as the guys in front of him aren’t so great he can’t win the starting job and playing in a good European league will force him to get better.
I was there for his first goal in his first game. I told my Dad “This kid is going to be something special.” I think he could be a world class left back one day. He is so young and already has many qualities of an experienced player. Caleb, thank you for all you have done for our city. REMEMBER US!!!!
I remember being there too! He was clearly special
[…] Atlanta United finalize transfer of homegrown talent Caleb Wiley to Chelsea […]