Chelsea have reportedly decided against sending goalkeeper prodigy Mike Penders back to Genk for another season. The 19-year-old has spent all of his young career in Belgium, and he remained there for 12 months after the Blues agreed a £17million deal to sign him last summer.

Standing 6ft 7in tall and boasting a glowing reputation as one of the best young stoppers in Europe, Penders banked a valuable season of senior experience by remaining at Genk for the 2024/25 campaign. It was widely expected that he would be sent out on loan for another season, given that Robert Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen are already fighting it out for the solitary starting berth under Enzo Maresca, and AC Milan's Mike Maignan was being pursued before the Club World Cup.

But according to Belgian news outlet HLN, Penders has been impressing coaches in Chelsea training, effectively sending the message to Maresca that he is ready for first-team involvement. The same report states that Penders will not be returning to Genk and, in principle, Chelsea do not want to loan him out at all.

A temporary switch to partner club Strasbourg could be an 'exception' made by Stamford Bridge bosses, but there is a possibility that he will remain in London for the forthcoming campaign.

It is unclear where he would fit into Maresca's pecking order at such a young age. Neither Sanchez nor Jorgensen has managed to stamp their authority between the sticks, while Djordje Petrovic and Gabriel Slonina spent last season out on loan.

The prospective arrival of Maignan, if Chelsea revive their pursuit later in the transfer window, would throw a spanner in the works. The 29-year-old is a fully-fledged France international and AC Milan regular with well over 400 senior appearances under his belt.

Penders may get the chance to send further messages to Maresca at the Club World Cup, where Chelsea have made it into the knockout rounds. Earlier this year, the Belgian Under-19 international shed light on the transfer saga which led to his Premier League move.

"I didn't see it coming," he told De Morgen. "Chelsea and PSG are not the smallest clubs. PSG did not want to pay what Genk asked. Chelsea, on the other hand, came up with a very concrete plan, both sporting and financially.

"Chelsea did not choose me based on a few games in the first-team, they had intensively followed me the entire season before at Jong Genk. So, you can see how important the academy is and why you should take those competitions seriously."