The Cobham Academy at Chelsea is quite possibly the best in England, if not Europe, and is responsible for churning out the biggest stars in youth football. Today, these academy stars are making a name for themselves in world football, may it be Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, and Reece James (to name a few) at Chelsea or Fikayo Tomori at AC Milan or Conor Gallagher at West Bromwich Albion. All of them, no matter the size of their teams, are playing in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
Between the academy starlets and the players mentioned above who have made it at the big time lie one more section of Chelsea’s youth revolution and they are Chelsea’s loan army. Chelsea has had a history of sending out an exorbitant amount of players out on loan to help them get some first-team minutes and while some make it big, there is a whole bunch of loanees whose careers do not go as planned.
Here lies, one more such topsy turvy career of a Chelsea academy graduate – Dujon Sterling
Dujon Sterling, as a Cobham academy starlet won all there was to win in the form of the FA Youth Cup, the UEFA Youth League, the U18 Premier League, the UEFA Euro U-19 Championship and excelled as a winger which caught the eye of the U-23 coaches at Cobham and Sterling was quickly promoted to the U-23 squad as a 16-year-old and went on to score 4 goals, while he featured 24 times, which was quite a feat at such a young age.
In September 2017, Dujon Sterling’s dream came true as he made his Chelsea senior debut in the EFL Cup against Nottingham Forest as he came on as a substitute for the final 14 minutes of the game. This was something that Sterling had always wanted, ever since he joined Chelsea as an 8-year-old. ‘It was surreal, especially at Stamford Bridge, under the lights, it was a dream come true’ – Dujon Sterling beamed with pride as he was asked how his debut went at a club where he started as a kid.
This led to Sterling being selected for England’s U-19 squad where he has since gone on to make 25 international appearances. But it was clear that if Sterling wanted to make it big, he would have to go out on loan and secure a starting place.
FIRST LOAN MOVE AWAY FROM CHELSEA:
Dujon Sterling by now had developed into a right wing-back as his physicality and pace suited this position perfectly and eventually this caught the eye of League One side Coventry City, who secured the services of the 18-year-old on a season-long loan deal in the summer of 2018.
This was Dujon Sterling’s first big move away from Chelsea and the youngster excelled on loan, as he featured 40 times for Coventry City and contributed 5 assists while keeping 11 clean sheets in the process. The 2018-19 season was not Coventry City’s best season by any means but it was an improvement on their previous season and Sterling played a substantial part in it.
STARTER AT WIGAN ATHLETIC:
His performances at Coventry City, in turn, led to Wigan Athletic wanting to pursue a move for the 20-year-old Englishman, who ironically at the time were trying to replace their outgoing right in Reece James, who was named Wigan Athletic’s Player of the Year and was subsequently called up by Frank Lampard to Chelsea’s first-team squad for the 2019-20 season.
‘He is like an inspiration for the people from the academy because he excelled on loan and is Chelsea’s first-choice right-back today’ – Dujon Sterling was caught speaking to the ‘5th Stand’ (Chelsea’s official app) when asked about how life is as a Chelsea loanee. Wigan Athletic eventually signed Dujon Sterling in August 2019 on a loan move till the end of the next season.
Wigan Athletic was a bigger challenge as Sterling would now play in the Championship, a place where Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus Cheek, and several others made a name for themselves. Sterling settled quite quickly to life at Wigan as he started 10 games for them and was receiving a lot of positive feedback from the fans as well as the coaches at Wigan.
INJURY SETBACK:
Unfortunately, Sterling picked up a knock on his hamstring, which at first look, was not all that serious but a scan later confirmed the fact that he had torn his hamstring. It was a massive setback for the 20-year-old as he was just starting to become the first name on the team sheet for Wigan. The injury eventually ruled him out for the rest of the season.
Now, back at Chelsea, he is ready and fit to play and has since represented the U-23 squad in the Premier League 2 and has started all of their games since the turn of the year. There is a long history at Chelsea of loanees getting injured while out on loan with Ruben Loftus Cheek or Charly Musonda as prime examples, both careers hampered by injury and now looking to start back up again.
Sterling as well as Chelsea hope that this is not the case for the academy graduate as he looks to get back to his feet and start fresh and if all goes well, get a senior call up, which does not look far from reality as the current Chelsea head coach, Thomas Tuchel has a history of working well with youth and incorporating them into the first-team plans.
It is not going to be an easy road, but Dujon Sterling is determined to become the next Chelsea academy star in Premier League and European Football and if things go to plan, the 21-year-old Englishman will certainly make it to the top.
