Chelsea F.C. Under-23s and Academy

Chelsea U-23 and Academy

Full name	Chelsea Football Club Under-23s and Academy
Nickname(s)	The Blues The Young Blues
Ground	Recreation Ground Cobham Training Centre Stamford Bridge
Capacity	7,100 (Recreation Ground) 40,853 (Stamford Bridge)
Owner	Roman Abramovich
Chairman	Bruce Buck
Manager	Andy Myers (U23) Ed Brand (U18)
League	Premier League 2 (under-23s) U18 Premier League (academy)
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Chelsea F.C. Under-23s are the under-23 team of Chelsea Football Club. They play in the Premier League 2, which is the top level of reserve football in England. They were the champions in the 2013–14 season. The team mainly consists of under-21 players at the club, although senior players occasionally have an appearance, for instance when they are recovering from injury. The under-23 team is managed by Andy Myers and the under-18 team is managed by Ed Brand.

Chelsea F.C. Academy is the under-18 team of Chelsea Football Club. It is a member of the Professional U18 Development League. They have won the FA Youth Cup nine times, including five consecutive titles between 2014 and 2018. The academy has produced many successful players such as the brothers Ron and Allan Harris, Peter Bonetti, Bobby Tambling, Barry Bridges, Bert Murray, John Hollins, Peter Osgood, Ray Wilkins, Graeme Le Saux, Bobby Smith, Terry Venables, Jimmy Greaves, and John Terry. Moreover, Chelsea earned reputation as being the only English club so far to have reached most finals of the UEFA Youth League, winning twice and finishing runners-up twice.

Neil Bath, who is the Head of Youth Development, is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the academy.^[1]

From the 2013–14 season, the under-23 team play their home games at Aldershot Town's Recreation Ground. The under-18 team play their home games at the club's Cobham Training Centre in Cobham, Surrey. Both teams occasionally use the club's home ground Stamford Bridge for important matches.

Development squad (U23)

As of 1 February 2021^[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 40 GK CRO Karlo Žiger 46 DF ENG Dynel Simeu 47 DF ENG Henry Lawrence 48 DF FRA Pierre Ekwah Elimby 49 MF AUT Thierno Ballo 50 FW IRL George Nunn 51 MF ENG Marcel Lewis 53 DF NIR Sam McClelland 54 MF ENG Lewis Bate 55 MF ENG Tino Anjorin 56 DF ENG Levi Colwill

No. Pos. Nation Player 57 DF ENG Tino Livramento 58 MF ENG Myles Peart-Harris 59 MF ENG Dion Rankine 64 FW NOR Bryan Fiabema 71 GK FIN Lucas Bergström — GK ENG Teddy Sharman-Lowe — DF NED Xavier Mbuyamba — DF ENG Dujon Sterling — MF ENG George McEachran — FW ENG Jude Soonsup-Bell

U18 squad

As of 9 February 2020^[3]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 60 MF ENG Xavier Simons 61 DF ENG Josh Brooking 62 DF ENG Bashir Humphreys 63 DF ENG Charlie Wiggett 65 MF ENG Ben Elliott 66 MF ENG Joe Haigh 67 MF ENG Harvey Vale 68 MF ENG Charlie Webster 72 GK ENG Prince Adegoke — GK FRA Sami Tlemcani

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK USA Ethan Wady — DF ENG Derrick Abu — DF ENG Luke Badley-Morgan — DF ENG Alfie Gilchrist — DF ENG Alex Kpakpe — MF SWE Edwin Andersson — MF ENG Josh Tobin — FW FIN Aleksi Heino — FW FIN Jimi Tauriainen — FW ENG Silko Thomas

Management team

Technical mentor	Claude Makélélé
Head of youth development	Neil Bath
Development squad manager	Andy Myers
Development squad assistant	Jon Harley
	Eric Ramsay
Under-18's manager	Ed Brand
Under-18's assistant	James Simmonds

Notable Academy graduates

Players who have at least 10 senior international caps and/or at least 100 appearances for Chelsea. Players who still play for Chelsea, including those that are currently out on loan to other clubs, are in bold.

Young Player of the Year

As of the 2019–20 season^[4]

Year Winner 1983 Keith Dublin 1984 Robert Isaac 1985 Gareth Hall 1986 Mick Bodley 1987 Jason Cundy 1988 Eddie Cunnington 1989 No award 1990 No award 1991 Andy Myers 1992 Zeke Rowe 1993 Neil Shipperley 1994 Mark Nicholls 1995 Chris McCann 1996 Jody Morris 1997 Nick Crittenden 1998 John Terry 1999 Samuele Dalla Bona 2000 Rhys Evans

Year Winner 2001 Leon Knight 2002 Carlton Cole 2003 Robert Huth 2004 Robert Huth 2005 Robert Huth 2006 Lassana Diarra 2007 John Obi Mikel 2008 The U18s youth team 2009 Michael Mancienne 2010 The U18s youth team 2011 Josh McEachran 2012 Lucas Piazon 2013 Nathan Aké 2014 Lewis Baker 2015 Kurt Zouma 2016 Ruben Loftus-Cheek 2017 No award 2018 Andreas Christensen

Year Winner 2019 Callum Hudson-Odoi 2020 No award

Academy Player of the Year

As of the 2019–20 season^[4]

Year Winner 2015 Dominic Solanke 2016 Fikayo Tomori 2017 Mason Mount 2018 Reece James 2019 Conor Gallagher 2020 Billy Gilmour

Academy graduates (1992–present)

— Academy graduates who still play for Chelsea, including those that are currently out on loan to other clubs, are in bold.^[5]

Player	International caps	Debut	Manager
Neil Shipperley	England U21	Age 18 v Southampton, 10 April 1993	David Webb
Michael Duberry	England U21	Age 18 v Coventry City, 4 May 1994	Glenn Hoddle
Jody Morris	England U21	Age 17 v Middlesbrough, 4 February 1996
Mark Nicholls		Age 19 v Leicester City, 12 October 1996	Ruud Gullit
Neil Clement	England U18	Age 19 v West Ham United, 21 December 1996
Paul Hughes		Age 21 v Derby County, 18 January 1997
Nick Colgan	Full Ireland caps	Age 24 v West Ham United, 12 March 1997
Joe Sheerin		Age 18 v Wimbledon, 22 Aprič 1997
Steven Hampshire		Age 16 v Blackburn Rovers, 15 October 1997
Nick Crittenden		Age 19 v Southampton, 19 November 1997
Jon Harley	England U21	Age 19 v Derby County, 5 April 1998	Gianluca Vialli
John Terry	Full England caps	Age 17 v Aston Villa, 28 October 1998
Mikael Forssell	Full Finland caps	Age 17 v Arsenal, 31 January 1999
Rob Wolleaston		Age 19 v Huddersfield Town, 13 October 1999
Samuele Dalla Bona	Italy U21	Age 18 v Feyenoord, 24 November 1999
Leon Knight	England U20	Age 19 v Levski Sofia, 27 September 2001	Claudio Ranieri
Joel Kitamirike		Age 18 v Hapoel Tel Aviv, 18 October 2001
Joe Keenan		Age 19 v Aston Villa, 9 February 2002
Carlton Cole	Full England caps	Age 18 v Everton, 6 April 2002
Robert Huth	Full Germany caps	Age 17 v Aston Villa, 11 May 2002
Filipe Oliveira	Portugal U21	Age 18 v Viking, 19 September 2002
Alexis Nicolas	Cyprus U21	Age 20 v Scarborough, 24 January 2004
Steven Watt	Scotland U21	Age 19 v Scunthorpe United, 8 January 2005	José Mourinho
Anthony Grant	England U19	Age 17 v Manchester United, 10 May 2005
Lenny Pidgeley	England U20	Age 21 v Charlton Athletic, 7 May 2005
Jimmy Smith	England U19	Age 19 v Newcastle United, 7 May 2006
Ben Sahar	Full Israel caps	Age 18 v Macclesfield Town, 6 January 2007
Michael Woods	England U19	Age 16 v Macclesfield Town, 6 January 2007
Scott Sinclair	England U21	Age 17 v Wycombe Wanderers, 10 January 2007
Sam Hutchinson	England U19	Age 17 v Everton, 13 May 2007	Avram Grant
Miroslav Stoch	Full Slovakia caps	Age 19 v Arsenal, 30 November 2008	Luiz Felipe Scolari
Michael Mancienne	England U21	Age 21 v Watford, 14 February 2009	Guus Hiddink
Fabio Borini	Full Italy caps	Age 18 v Tottenham Hotspur, 20 September 2009	Carlo Ancelotti
Jeffrey Bruma	Full Netherlands caps	Age 17 v Blackburn Rovers, 24 October 2009
Gaël Kakuta	Full DR Congo caps	Age 18 v Wolverhampton Wanderers, 21 November 2009
Patrick van Aanholt	Full Netherlands caps	Age 19 v Portsmouth, 24 March 2010
Josh McEachran	England U21	Age 17 v MŠK Žilina, 15 September 2010
Jacob Mellis	England U19	Age 19 v MŠK Žilina, 23 November 2010
Ryan Bertrand	Full England caps	Age 21 v Birmingham City, 20 April 2011
Lucas Piazon	Brazil U23	Age 18 v Wolverhampton Wanderers, 25 September 2012	Roberto Di Matteo
Nathan Aké	Full Netherlands caps	Age 17 v Norwich City, 26 December 2012	Rafael Benítez
Tomáš Kalas	Full Czech Republic caps	Age 20 v Arsenal, 29 October 2013	José Mourinho
Lewis Baker	England U21	Age 18 v Derby County, 5 January 2014
John Swift	England U21	Age 18 v Cardiff City, 11 May 2014
Dominic Solanke	Full England caps	Age 17 v Maribor, 21 October 2014
Andreas Christensen	Full Denmark caps	Age 18 v Shrewsbury Town, 28 October 2014
Ruben Loftus-Cheek	Full England caps	Age 18 v Sporting Lisbon, 10 December 2014
Isaiah Brown	England U20	Age 18 v West Bromwich Albion, 18 May 2015
Bertrand Traoré	Full Burkina Faso caps	Age 20 v Maccabi Tel Aviv, 16 September 2015
Jake Clarke-Salter	England U21	Age 18 v Aston Villa, 2 April 2016	Guus Hiddink
Tammy Abraham	Full England caps	Age 18 v Liverpool, 11 May 2016
Fikayo Tomori	Full England caps	Age 18 v Leicester City, 15 May 2016
Ola Aina	Full Nigeria caps	Age 19 v Bristol Rovers, 23 August 2016	Antonio Conte
Nathaniel Chalobah	Full England caps	Age 21 v Leicester City, 20 September 2016
Charly Musonda	Belgium U21	Age 20 v Arsenal, 6 August 2017
Jérémie Boga	Full Ivory Coast caps	Age 20 v Burnley, 12 August 2017
Dujon Sterling	England U20	Age 17 v Nottingham Forest, 20 September 2017
Callum Hudson-Odoi	Full England caps	Age 17 v Newcastle United, 28 January 2018
Kyle Scott	United States U20	Age 20 v Hull City, 16 February 2018
Mason Mount	Full England caps	Age 20 v Manchester United, 11 August 2019	Frank Lampard
Billy Gilmour	Scotland U21	Age 18 v Sheffield United, 31 August 2019
Reece James	Full England caps	Age 19 v Grimsby Town, 25 September 2019
Marc Guehi	England U21	Age 19 v Grimsby Town, 25 September 2019
Ian Maatsen	Netherlands U18	Age 17 v Grimsby Town, 25 September 2019
Tino Anjorin	England U19	Age 17 v Grimsby Town, 25 September 2019
Tariq Lamptey	England U21	Age 19 v Arsenal, 29 December 2019
Armando Broja	Full Albania caps	Age 18 v Everton, 8 March 2020

Honours

Chelsea players celebrating winning the 2015–16 FA Youth Cup.

Reserves Team

• U21 Premier League / Premier League 2
  • (2): 2013–14, 2019–20
• The Football Combination
  • (11): 1948–49, 1954–55, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1964–65, 1974–75, 1976–77, 1984–85, 1990–91, 1993–94
• Premier Reserve League – National Champions
  • (1): 2010–11
• Premier Reserve League – Southern Champions
  • (1): 2010–11
• London Challenge Cup
  • (5): 1919–20, 1926–27, 1949–50, 1959–60, 1960–61

Academy Team

• UEFA Youth League
  • (2): 2014–15, 2015–16
• U18 Premier League – National Champions
  • (2): 2016–17, 2017–18
• U18 Premier League – Southern Champions
  • (4): 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
• FA Youth Cup
  • (9): 1959–60, 1960–61, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
• U18 Premier League Cup
  • (1): 2017–18

References

External links

• Why Chelsea could finally be reaping the rewards of their outstanding academy – These Football Times (2017)