One of UK’s most expensive footballers banned from driving

A £100 million-rated Premier League footballer has been banned from driving after being found guilty of a motoring offence.

Chelsea FC star Enzo Fernandez was fined £3,020 and banned from driving for six months after being found guilty on two charges of failing to identify the driver of a Porsche Cayenne.

A driver of the car was allegedly caught speeding on Carmarthen Road, Swansea on December 20 2023, by South Wales Police and running a red light on Church Street, Llanelli on November 28 last year by Dyfed-Powys Police.

It was not proven that Fernandez was the driver of the vehicle on either occasion.

Both police forces wrote to the 23-year-old Argentinian, as the vehicle’s registered owner, but he did not respond to requests for information.

Fernandez did not appear before Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday for sentencing, having been found guilty in his absence at two hearings earlier this year.

Court papers gave two addresses for Fernandez, one at the Chelsea training ground in Surrey and another in Kingston-upon-Thames.

Wyn Evans, the chair of the magistrates, said: “We are dealing with two matters of failing to give the driver’s identity which has been proved in Enzo Fernandez’s absence.”

In total, he was charged £1,000 and £110 in police costs for the offence in Llanelli and a further £1,000 charge, £800 victim surcharge and £110 in police costs for the offence in Swansea.

He was also given six penalty points for each offence – 12 points in total.

Fernandez already had nine penalty points on his license for speeding, leading to an automatic ban for six months starting from Wednesday.

Fernandez won the World Cup with Argentina in December 2022 and a month later joined Chelsea in a then-British transfer record £106.8 million deal from Benfica.

He joined the Lisbon side in the summer of 2022 from Argentinian club River Plate for £8.8 million and played just 29 games before moving to London.