Didi Hamann names two clubs who could sign Cole Palmer from Chelsea

Champions League winner Dietmar Hamann says Cole Palmer has a ‘healthy arrogance’ that could take him to two giants of European football.

The Chelsea and England star has been one of the best players in the world over the past 12 months.

Signed from Manchester City in the summer of 2023 for £40m, Palmer has scored 38 goals and made 19 assists in 61 appearances for the Blues.

Palmer has also become a mainstay in the England team over the past year, playing a limited but crucial role in the Three Lions’ run to the Euro 2024 final and scoring in said final against Spain.

The 22-year-old put pen to paper on a new contract with Chelsea before the start of the season which could potentially keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2033.

But for a range of reasons it is unlikely that Palmer will still be at Chelsea in almost a decades’ time and Hamann reckons he could start ‘thinking about leaving’ in the next three years, especially if the west London club fail to meet his trophy aspirations.

Chelsea looked set to challenge for the Premier League title earlier this season but a dismal run since mid-December has seen Enzo Maresca’s side slip to fourth.

Five games without a win even put Chelsea’s Champions League hopes in jeopardy with defending champions Manchester City and in-form Newcastle United among the teams looking to pip Palmer’s side to a top-four finish.

Hamann believes the next 12 months will be ‘key’ to Chelsea’s progression under Maresca and therefore Palmer’s long-term future at Stamford Bridge, with a stunning move abroad not beyond the realms of possibility.

‘Cole Palmer will be pleased to see that Chelsea are making progress because getting back into the Champions League was a minimum requirement from this season,’ Hamann told BestOffShoreSportsbooks.

‘In two or three seasons time he might think about leaving if he hasn’t won a major trophy, he will want to be challenging at least but at the moment he is committed to the club. 

‘He has a healthy arrogance to his game and that could end up taking him to Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, it depends on what happens at Chelsea. 

‘I think what happens over the next 12 months will be key.’ 

Hamann spent a decade in English football – most notably at Liverpool and Manchester City – after winning two Bundesliga titles at boyhood club Bayern Munich.

Palmer is not the only current Premier League star Hamann can see ‘ending up’ at Bayern, with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah also tipped for a potential move to the Allianz Arena.

Salah, who has scored 232 goals in 379 appearances for the Reds, is coming to the end of his contract at Anfield and talks over a new deal have stalled.

‘I think the Premier League is probably the most competitive league and if you play for a team like Liverpool then everybody wants to knock you off your perch,’ ex-Germany midfielder Hamann added.

‘Mohamed Salah has been thriving under that pressure for the last 10 years. He’s been scoring goals, he’s been creating goals. I think he’ll be a success wherever he goes.

‘I don’t think there’s any league where he wouldn’t be a success. Obviously his age comes into it, but the way he’s performed and how fit he is, I think he’s got at least another couple of years at the highest level.

‘If he went to Bayern Munich he would continue being such a success like he has at Liverpool, but they might be one of ten teams on his doorstep if he does announce that he is leaving.

‘Harry Kane likes to play with quick wingers like he does at the moment with Kingsley Coman, Leroy Sane and Michael Olise – he’d jump at the chance to play alongside Mohamed Salah.

‘Salah in the Bayern squad would give Kane a better chance to win trophies and it could make for a great partnership if that happened.’

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