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Billy Gilmour is Chelsea’s latest Academy Player of the Year award, but what have the previous five winners achieved since then?
Chelsea are renowned for their youthful talents, and although they are equally known for lending many of these players rather than using them on their own, they have started to change.
Here’s how their five previous Academy Players of the Year fared since they got the honor.
2015: Dominic Solanke
Solanke was awarded the first Chelsea Academy Player of the Year award after scoring 41 goals during the 2014-15 season, when he also made his debut for the first team as a late substitute in the 6-0 win over Maribor in the Champions League. League.
He spent the following season on loan at Vitesse and finished third top scorer with seven goals in 25 games, returning to Stamford Bridge to fight for a spot in 2016-17 only to fail to make a single first-team appearance throughout. season.
He joined Liverpool at the end of his contract in 2017 but scored only once in 27 matches before being sold to Bournemouth for £ 19m in some way. At the time of writing, he has four goals in 36 appearances for the Cherries.
READ: How Chelsea’s 14 FM2020 wonderkids have grown into real life this season
2016: Fikayo Tomori
Tomori won the award after scoring in the Youth Cup and UEFA Youth League final in 2015-16, making his first-team debut as a substitute in the 60th minute in the final game of that season.
He did not play for the first team again in the first half of the following season and so joined Brighton in January 2017, making 10 appearances, before consecutive season-long loan periods at Hull and Derby.
The second of these was particularly productive under Frank Lampard, and when the Chelsea legend returned to Stamford Bridge as manager in 2019, he decided to keep Tomori around, with the defender scoring twice in 22 appearances in 2019- 20.
2017: Mason Mount
Mount captained the Youth Cup squad for a fourth consecutive success in 2017 and ended a fantastic season creating England’s winner of the European Under-19 Championship, where he was named the best player of the tournament.
He joined Vitesse on loan that summer and scored 14 outstanding goals, helping them qualify for the Europa League, having been named their player of the season and even invited to train with England’s senior squad.
Like Tomori, he then spent 2018-19 on loan at the Lampard Derby, contributing 16 combined goals and assists before returning to Stamford Bridge to sign a new five-year deal and then enjoy a hugely impressive breakthrough campaign with the Blues.
1 year later … a day I will never forget! @ChelseaFC pic.twitter.com/c4zqjCVlNU
– Mason Mount (@ masonmount_10) August 18, 2020
2018: Reece James
James won the award after captaining the Under 18s for yet another Youth Cup triumph in 2017-18, signing a four-year deal that summer and then joined Wigan on loan for the season.
He impressed so much at DW Stadium that he won the Fans ‘Player of the Year award with 96% of the vote, as well as the Players’ Player of the Year and Goal of the Season awards, scoring three goals in 46 appearances in both. in the right back and in the central midfield.
He was also named in the Championship Team of the Season and so it’s no surprise that Lampard was kept around by Lampard for the 2019-20 season where he made 37 appearances in all competitions, becoming the Champions League’s youngest ever scorer. of the club when he completed his comeback in a 4-4 draw against Ajax.
In January 2020 he signed a long-term contract extension to commit his future to the club.
READ: The 31 Chelsea players sent on loan in 2019-20 and how they fared
2019: Conor Gallagher
Gallagher is still awaiting his first-team debut at Chelsea, but the midfielder made a big impression on loan at Charlton in the first half of 2019-20, scoring six times from midfield, before being recalled on loan to a more senior team. high in the championship in Swansea.
He impressed there too, providing six assists in 21 games, and as a player who believes he is the best as a box-to-box midfielder and grew up idolizing Lampard, he certainly has the right coach to help him progress for years to come.
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