Longest serving goalkeeper Delac leaves Chelsea with 'clean sheet'

Terrassa, (Barcelona), November 14: A bizarre 'record-breaking' story of a Chelsea goalkeeper has gone viral ever since he tweeted his announcement to leave the London club.

For eight long years at the Blues, Matej Delac has not had the opportunity to wear the Chelsea jersey in an official match even for a minute.

And the irony is that, the 25-year-old Croatian is the longest serving player for Antonio Conte's team.

Many Chelsea supporters could easily get the answer wrong as to who is the club's longest serving player? You might think Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta or Eden Hazard but in fact it is Delac!

The goalkeeper has never made a first team appearance for the club, despite being there for eight long years.

During this period, Roman Abramovich took the services of Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois who now guards the Chelsea bar.

Delac arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2010 as a highly rated 17-year-old in €3m deal from Inter Zepresic.

However, that same year he was sent out on loan to Dutch side Vitesse, a side that has received a number of players on loan from Chelsea in recent seasons.

Following his return from the Netherlands, Delac began a marathon of ten loan spells across Europe, as each time he was unable to convince Chelsea to give him a chance.

Despite being the longest serving player on Chelsea's books, Delac shows little sign of ever making his debut for the West London club, and he has asked to leave.

"Chelsea had a plan for my career, but you can't plan for some things", Delac revealed in an interview with Sport.

Delac potentially still has a long career ahead of him. As the 25-year-old looks to banish Chelsea demons, his priority would be to make up for the lost time.

And his story has gone viral thanks to the tweet @SPORF account which has achieved more than 1700 retweets and 4500 likes.

CONFIRMED: Matej Delac is set to leave @ChelseaFC.

📅 Signed: 2010
👕 Games Played: 0
📝 Loans Moves: 9
✅ Chelsea's longest-serving player

End of an era 😢🔵 pic.twitter.com/K5iGfhgN54

— SPORF (@Sporf) November 8, 2017

Delac's European odyssey

Vitesse - Holland

Dynamo Ceske Budejovice - Czech Republic

Vitoria Guimaraes - Portugal

Inter Zapresic - Croatia (Until January)

Vojvodina - Serbia

FK Sarajevo - Bosnia (Until January)

Arles - France (Until January)

FK Sarajevo - Bosnia

FK Sarajevo - Bosnia

Royal Mouscron - Belgium