Armando Broja has opened up on his decision to leave Tottenham for Chelsea as a youngster - with the striker revealing that the Blues poached him after watching him bag nine goals in a 12-0 win during his academy days in north London.
Broja recently penned a new six-year deal and is expected to be given a first-team chance by new boss Graham Potter after impressing on loan at Southampton last term.
The 21-year-old, who is highly thought of at Stamford Bridge, originally joined Chelsea back in 2009 after spending two years on the books at Tottenham's academy. But Broja has revealed that he landed his big break by impressing a scout who had come to watch somebody else play.
Broja told The Players’ Tribune : "I remember going to a tournament. The Tottenham scout actually came to watch another boy. I happened to obviously play well that tournament and I got top goalscorer and I got best player at the tournament so they approached my mum and dad before I even knew about it.
"So, when I came back my mum and dad said, ‘Tottenham came over to us’ and I was thinking, ‘who’s Tottenham?’ Because I was quite young, I didn’t really know anything apart from my Sunday league team. So in my head it was just Burnham Juniors – that’s all I knew!"
After being filled in by his parents, Broja was eager to link up with Tottenham and spent the next two years plying his trade in the academy.
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But Broja was a big Chelsea fan after being taken to Stamford Bridge at a very early age by his mother's cousin. And even though the Albania international had been signed by a "big team", he was in no doubt about where he wanted to eventually end up.
He added: "My mum’s first cousin, he’s a massive Chelsea fan. He would take me to every Chelsea game when I was like three or four so I always supported Chelsea. He loves Chelsea so in my head I just supported Chelsea, but I didn’t know the rivalry between Tottenham [and] Chelsea so when I did join Tottenham I didn’t know what it was going to be like.
"In my head when I was at Tottenham, I supported them [Chelsea], but I always wanted to beat them because I wanted to show the Chelsea staff and everyone there that I want to join Chelsea.
"[One time] I was on the bench and then I was begging my manager to come on, ‘please let me, we’re losing 2-0’. As soon as I came on, I got an assist and then I got a goal after that so we drew 2-2.
"And then we moved over to the other side of the pitch and played the other team. We won 12-0 I think, and I scored nine. Straight after that, the two Chelsea guys came over and said ‘wow, we want you’. When they said that I didn’t think of anything else, I just wanted to join Chelsea.
"So eventually that obviously did happen and joined Chelsea end of U9s, start of U10s so I’ve been there since then."
