Nigerian international Victor Moses has completed a permanent transfer to Spartak Moscow after a season-long loan at the Russian club.
The move brings to an end the winger’s nine-year Chelsea career and returns him to the Russian Premier League club, where he made 20 appearances on loan last season.
Moses switched Wigan Athletic for west London in the summer of 2012, completing his transfer to the European champions just days after starting against us on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.
In his first interview as a Chelsea player, Victor Moses promised ‘there’s still more to come from me’ and that is exactly what he then proved over the coming years.
After making his Blues debut as a second-half substitute away at Queens Park Rangers, he then scored on his first start, capping a solid display by heading home to round off a 6-0 Carabao Cup victory over Wolves. A week later, he made his first Champions League appearance in another big win, this time in Denmark against Nordsjaelland.
Victor Moses’ promising maiden season proved to be the best goalscoring term of Moses’s time at Stamford Bridge, with further strikes against Swansea City, Leeds United and Shakhtar Donetsk coming before Christmas, the latter a last-minute European winner. They each gave him the opportunity to perform the acrobatic celebrations he became renowned for.
Competition for places in the front three was tough, with Eden Hazard having also arrived that summer from Lille, but Moses was a regular throughout the campaign and finished with double figures for goals.
His most notable efforts during the run-in came at home and away in both the quarter-final and semi-final of the Europa League as we went on to lift the trophy in Amsterdam, the first of his four major honours as a Blue.
On the international stage, the Lagos-born winger headed to South Africa midway through his first campaign in SW6 to represent Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations and proved influential as his nation won the tournament for the first time since 1994.
Victor Moses ends his time at Chelsea with 128 appearances and 18 goals to his name, as well as a Europa League, FA Cup and Premier League title.
