Christoph Freund refuses to rule out taking Chelsea job

The 45-year-old has held a number of posts with the perennial Austrian champions and has overseen a sustained period of success since becoming sporting director in 2015.

Salzburg have won seven Austrian Bundesliga titles on the bounce since Freund took on the role, as well as sanctioning big-money sales for a number of revered talents.

Erling Braut Haaland, Dayot Upamecano, Dominik Szoboszlai and Naby Keita have all come through the ranks before leaving for hefty fees in the past few years, while Karim Adeyemi and Brenden Aaronson became Salzburg's two most expensive departures of all time in the recent summer window.

Salzburg also added to their youthful ranks with the acquisitions of Lucas Gourna-Douath and Strahinja Pavlovic, and the Austrian champions held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw in Champions League action on Wednesday.

With the Blues on the lookout for a new sporting director following the exit of Marina Granovskaia, Todd Boehly has supposedly earmarked Freund as a candidate for the role.

The Salzburg chief recently commented on the rumours to Sky Sports Austria, in which he affirmed that he was enjoying life at Salzburg but did not rule out the possibility of moving to Chelsea, who he dubbed a "huge club".

"You should never rule anything out in football and Chelsea are such a huge club. But I'm sports director in Salzburg and I really enjoy it," Freund said. "Chelsea is a huge club in transition. I can't say exactly what will happen in the next few weeks and months."

The 45-year-old also revealed that discussions were held with the Blues regarding a possible move for striker Benjamin Sesko, who already has 15 goals in 50 games for Salzburg at the age of 19.

However, RB Leipzig have won the race to sign the 6ft 5in Slovenia international, who will join the German powerhouses in the summer of 2023.

"I've had exchanges with Chelsea from time to time. We spoke more often a month or two ago because they were interested in Sesko," Freund added.

"The new owners are interested in how we do it with young players, how we integrate them into the first team. But you do that again and again with other clubs - that's it."

Chelsea took the lead against Salzburg through Raheem Sterling before Noah Okafor levelled for the Austrian side in Wednesday's Champions League Group E clash, as Graham Potter's first game in charge of the Blues ended in a 1-1 draw.

Potter and Boehly are understood to have discussed the addition of a new sporting director prior to the former's official appointment, and Paris Saint-Germain's Luis Campos has also been linked with the role.

Campos only joined the Ligue 1 champions earlier this year, but he has supposedly been promised a £260m transfer war chest if he takes on a role at Stamford Bridge.