Self-centred fellow, European chap, taking leave, upsetting CIA (9)
I believe the answer is:
egomaniac
'self-centred fellow' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'european chap taking leave upsetting cia' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'european' could be 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU) and 'e' is found within the answer.
'chap' could be 'man' (chap can mean a man) and 'man' is found within the answer.
'leave' could be 'go' (to go is to depart or leave) and 'go' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'cia' is 'iac' which is within the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for egomaniac that I've seen before include "Come again (anag.)" , "number one fan" , "self-obsessed individual" , "One who's self-obsessed" , "Obsessively self-absorbed person" .)