With just weeks until the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins in North America, one more former Chelsea player has been selected for punditry duty for the tournament
After last night's victory at home to Spurs, we can now say that as soon as the Sunderland clash on Sunday is over, the attention of all Chelsea fans will turn straight to this summer's FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Earlier on this week, it was confirmed that two popular former Blues in Olivier Giroud and Cesar Azpilicueta would be part of the BBC's punditry team for the World Cup, which excited a lot of fans who have very fond memories of both players.
Well, there will be one more popular, UEFA Champions League winning former Blue who will be part of the UK's coverage of the tournament. Indeed, as it has today, Wednesday the 20th of May, been confirmed that Juan Mata will be part of ITV's coverage.
Just like with Giroud and Azpilicueta, some may be surprised to hear that Mata is still playing football. The now 38-year old is currently down under playing with Melbourne Victory, and just won the A-League Player of the Year for the 25/26 season, having scored five goals and provided 13 assists.
The attacking midfielder is not a stranger to working on UK coverage of tournaments, having worked for the BBC during Euro 2024, where he was a pundit for the final as his native Spain took down England in Berlin. This time, he will be with rival broadcaster ITV.
So, we can probably assume that he will be working on Spain games. In which case, their schedule is as follows (all times BST): Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia on the 15th and 21st June respectively at 17:00, and Uruguay on the 27th at 01:00.
He could also perhaps be working on the Australia games, considering that's where he is playing and has played for the past two years. Their schedule is a lot more unforgiving for any UK based Chelsea fans that want to see his punditry, with two of their games kicking off at 05:00 and 03:00.
Nevertheless, still pretty cool to see Mata in this role. It is a shame how things ended for him in SW6, but there is no doubt he was a quality player for a couple of years, and he will always be held in high esteem for assisting Didier Drogba's equaliser against Bayern Munich in the 2012 Champions League final. He did miss his penalty in the shootout, but all was well that ended well.
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