Chelsea are convinced that their youngster Gabriel Slonina has a big future, according to reports.
Gabriel Slonina, who’s just 18, is a goalkeeper the Blues signed from MLS club Chicago Fire last summer.
The teenage keeper joined up with Chelsea’s Under-21s side in the New Year, which has given his first taste of English football.
Now, Slonina is off to the Under-20s World Cup this month to represent the United States.
Incidentally, there’s a strong core of Chelsea players that have been called up by the Young Lions for the World Cup tournament. England’s Under-20s squad includes Chelsea-owned talents Carney Chukwuemeka, Harvey Vale, Bashir Humphreys and Teddy Sharman-Lowe.
Well-respected journalist Fabrizio Romano has shared that Chelsea are certain Slonina can be a big player in the future.
Speaking about Slonina on the Here We Go podcast (12 May), Romano said: “I can tell you that Chelsea are very excited about the possibility he will have at the Under-20 World Cup. They feel this is a big chance for him to have a great opportunity on the big stage.
“Chelsea are very confident for Gaga Slonina to do excellent things and to be the goalkeeper of the future.”
It’s going to be interesting to see how long it takes before Slonina gets a look around the first-team squad on a matchday.
The Athletic claimed a couple of months ago that Chelsea’s owners have been impressed by what they’ve seen from Slonina on the training ground at Cobham.
We never really see any teenage goalkeepers starting for a big club, so the American talent definitely has a lot of time on his side.
In our view, Chelsea’s keeper position is wide open and Slonina should be ambitious with his plans for next season.
If Kepa Arrizabalaga and Edouard Mendy find themselves out of favour with the next manager, Slonina should definitely eye up a spot as the back-up goalkeeper at Stamford Bridge.
We will all learn more about the Chelsea prospect at the Under-20 World Cup.
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