Fikayo Tomori has been one of a number of youth players who have burst onto the scene this season and made their way into the first team at the Bridge.
After being named Derby County’s player of the year last term, many tipped Tomori to feature under Frank Lampard this season. However, no one expected his level of performance to be so high so soon. The young Englishman earned himself an England debut against Kosovo and is only going to get better.
Tomori is now part of an impressive statistic. Of the last 21 England national debutants, nine have graduated from the Chelsea academy. This is a testament to the talent of these players and the commitment of Lampard to bring them into the Chelsea starting 11.
When speaking to The Telegraph recently Tomori spoke of the meteoric rise of himself and the other academy graduates:
”I’m not too sure how it has happened, we just want to play football. We enjoy playing football for the club, we want to keep on improving and obviously the manager’s given us a chance to show ourselves in the Champions League and Premier League.
”On the biggest stage, when you’re playing well the England guys are going to be watching. We’ve just tried to take our opportunities as they’ve come and, obviously, I’m happy that all of us have made our debuts.”
If the new generation of young English talent at Chelsea continues to perform to the levels they are currently, there is no doubt they will have long international careers ahead of them.
A number of them could even play significant roles in next summer’s European Championships.
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