“Having watched him play he has the potential to be one of the best." 

Words like that from anybody is enough to boost a young players’ confidence but when it comes from a six-time Ballon D’or winner, it means more.

Those were the words of Lionel Messi, regarded by many as the best footballer to ever walk the planet, talking about none other than Chelsea’s Mason Mount.

This season has been the breakthrough season for Mount, with his outstanding performances in a Chelsea shirt earning him his first senior England appearance.

He has since added five more England caps and has been involved in 11 goals in all competitions for Chelsea this season before the coronavirus outbreak caused a halt to all football.

The 21-year-old will be one player who will no doubt be feeling confident when the season resumes.

  • Lampard knew early on

Mount signed for the Blues in 2005, when he was just six years old. 

In his youth days, he helped the club win back to back FA Youth Cup’s in 2016 and 2017 before being shipped out on loan to Dutch side Vitesse to try and get some senior football under his belt.

All the while, he was making a name for himself on the international stage, featuring at all levels of England’s youth set-up.

In Holland, Mount was really making an impact for Vitesse, scoring eight and assisting nine goals in the Eredivisie during the 2017-18 season.

He also made six appearances in the Europa League that season, sparking Derby County to bring him in on loan the following season in a move that looked like a good deal for both club and player.

Chelsea legend Frank Lampard had recently taken on the job of first-team manager at Derby and who else better for Mount to learn his trade from than one of England’s most talented midfielders of all time.

What with Lampard, Mount and another Chelsea youth prospect in Fikayo Tomori, who also joined on-loan, there was quite a lot of Chelsea interest at Derby during the 2018-19 season.

Mount sparkled in the Championship, scoring 11 times in all competitions as Derby made the Championship play-off final.

Unfortunately, the Rams lost to Aston Villa in the final but Lampard had seen enough to know that Mount could make an impact for his parent club in the Premier League.

Speaking after Mount’s first hat-trick in English football against Bolton Wanderers, Lampard said “the sky is the limit” for young Mount.

It was just fitting, then, for Lampard to take over from Maurizio Sarri as Chelsea manager in July 2019 and continue his work with Mount.

  • First Premier League start to first England start within a month

When Mount went back to his parent club after his fantastic season with Derby, it was clear he was going to be in the first team picture at Stamford Bridge, especially with Lampard prioritising youth over experience.

However, it was a surprise for many to see how well he coped with the big step-up from Championship football to the Premier League.

In the early stages of the season, Mount was emerging as Chelsea’s stand out player, scoring against both Leicester and Norwich within the first three games of the season.

These early season performances earned Mount his first England appearance, coming on September 7th 2019 in a 4-0 victory against Bulgaria.

His remarkable rise was then further cemented when he made his Champions League debut against Valencia later that month.

  • Not all plain sailing

The start of the season was very positive for Mount and Lampard and it looked as though they were a perfect match for each other; the only way was up.

However, as it often doesn’t in football, it didn’t work out that way.

A run of 1 goal in 25 matches in all competitions between the middle of October and the end of February for Mount led to lots of criticism for both him and for Lampard for continuing to show faith in the young midfielder.

Results at the club also suffered with Chelsea winning just one of their first six league fixtures of 2020.

Mount continued to work hard and dig deep for the team in the hope of turning his fortunes around.

In Chelsea’s last game before the season was suspended, Mount put in an excellent performance, scoring as the Blues demolished Everton 4-0 at home.

He will hope that this will give him the confidence to push on when the season eventually resumes later this year.

He knows he has a lot of improvements to make but there is real hope around Chelsea that Mount could go on to become “one of the best” just like Messi said he could.