Ethan Ampadu first joined Chelsea in 2017 at the age of 17 from Exeter City.
A club which prides themselves on producing high quality academy players such as Swansea City captain Matt Grimes and Ollie Watkins who recently became Aston Villa’s record signing.
When he first joined Chelsea, he was playing in a number of the academy sides including the development squad.
Tough crowd to please
His versatility, composure and his natural leadership quickly impressed Antonio Conte to earn his first team debut against Nottingham Forest to become Chelsea’s eighth youngest debutant.
He then went on to make another 11 appearances for the first team including a Premier League appearance against Huddersfield.
Despite an impressive first season for a young player, when Maurizio Sarri came into Chelsea he did not see a place for him in his side so the club loaned him to RB Leipzig where he struggled to break into the side only playing 79 minutes in the Bundesliga.
Despite this, he did feature in three Champions League games including a full 90 minutes against Tottenham Hotspur. In this game he had a stand out performance completing 93 passes from defence with a 95% accarucy the type of compsure which Chelsea are lacking in defence.
Praises are high from Wales manager Ryan Giggs
Ampadu has clearly impressed Giggs while on international duty, so much that the Welsh manager flew out to Germany when he was at RB Leipzig to discuss why he wasn’t getting the game time he deserved.
Ampadu has already earnt 15 caps for Wales and will want to keep adding to it, with Giggs recently saying: “He’s a quality player and nothing fazes him.”
Ampadu has recently go on loan to Sheffield United and there couldn’t be a better place for him to learn than at Bramall Lane under Chris Wilder.
Last season, Sheffield United massively over achieved by pushing for a European spot while playing entertaining and a unique style of football with a squad which hasn’t had a major change in personnel since they were in League One proving how good of a manager Wilder is.
Wilder likes to play with overlapping centre backs and Ampadu’s ability to play in defence and midfield makes him very suitable to break into the side and suit this style of play whether he is pushing upfeild from centre back or if he is dropping in deep to cover from midfield.
Who knows, if this season is a success, he could break into Lampard's side next season.