Andreas Christensen has received huge praise from his national team coach.
Chelsea may be one of the world’s biggest and best when it comes to buying talented players – but they have also plunged millions of pounds into the youth team infrastructure at the club.
The result has been – well essentially zero players making it into the first-team through the Chelsea youth system.
Nathan Ake and Ryan Bertrand have flirted with the first Xi – while plenty of talented youngsters have excelled away from the club on loan – but essentially the benefit has not yet been seen in the first-team.
But one promising youngster that they have high hopes for is Danish defender Andreas Christensen. The 17-year-old was a member of the Chelsea team that won the NextGen Series competition last season and is a regular in the Chelsea under-21 side.
Despite his age he is already punching way above his weight – and is even a member of the Danish under-21 side.
And his international under-21 coach has been signing his praises in the Danish media. Jess Thorup took over the under-21’s in February and he began bringing Christensen into the side in August this year – and is very happy with his progress so far:
“Andreas has not had any trouble getting on. He is truly a pleasure to follow on the field, because he at a very young age is already very mature football. He makes the right decision and is something special.”
But what are his chances of getting into the Chelsea first-team anytime soon?
Pretty slim going by the current ‘crop’ of Chelsea youngsters currently getting a chance in the first-team. What is more likely is that by the time he is ready for the first-team – Chelsea would have spent monumental sums on average replacements.
A loan deal at Vitesse, seemingly a rite of passage for Chelsea starlet’s these days, is likely followed by a struggle to break the first team.
Hopefully though Christensen can be an exception to the rule; he really is a special talent and will undoubtedly be good enough to play Premier League football one day.
Will that be at Chelsea? We will just have to wait and see?
image: © NextGen
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