The under-20 World Cup is well underway and Chelsea have had no shortage of involvement with the captains of Brazil, USA, Italy and England. Andrey Santos, Gabriel Slonina, Cesare Casadei and England's Harvey Vale, Bashir Humphreys and Teddy Sharman-Lowe all navigated the group stages of the tournament to reach the last 16.
Already Santos and Casadei have faced off as captains in the tournament with the Italian star putting in an outstanding performance. The £16.8million signing, who started the season with the Blues' development squad before heading on loan to Reading, scored a brace in that game on his way to having a firm impact throughout the competition so far.
While Slonina is yet to let in a goal in the competition, Casadei leads the top goalscorer charts with five strikes after his penalty ensured Chelsea's England contingent progressed no further. Carney Chukwuemeka started the last-16 match having been prevented from joining up with the group sooner due to Chelsea commitments.
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A difficult pitch and uncertain refereeing led to a difficult game for both the Three Lions and Azzurri. However, it would not be unfair to say that Vale and Humphreys had promising outings in Argentina, with the former showing good deliveries from wing-back and the latter keeping Callum Doyle out of the starting lineup versus Italy.
Casadei's 87th-minute penalty, after his shot struck the arm of Jarell Quansah, was enough to separate the sides however as he once again showed his steele and leadership abilities to earn a degree of revenge having been knocked out of the under-19 Euros by England, on their route to becoming champions last summer.
It was a brief stay in Argentina for Chukwuemeka who had two penalties turned down on the night. The former Aston Villa star was immediately placed in Ian Foster's starting lineup and was able to glide across a cut-up pitch.
The 19-year-old completed 90 minutes, just 47 minutes short of his Chelsea contribution having been denied joining up with the England squad at the start of the tournament. Chukwuemeka impressed in defeat to Manchester United but there will remain a debate over how the midfielder was best served.
After making the decision Lampard said: "He's a Chelsea player and we've got injuries in that area. The situation with Carney is he's come into a club, a big move for him, and this season hasn't managed to get so many minutes, the size of the squad, and settling in at a new club. Hopefully, there's an opportunity in these three games for him. He's our player, and we have lost players we need him to stay. There's a possibility he can join up at the end of the season if the team get through into the next stages. It might be the best of both worlds in an ideal way but it's our player and we had to make that decision. I felt a bit for Carney, he was keen to go but at the same time what happened meant he had to stay."
England did make it to the knockout stage but Chukwuemeka was denied a significant role as they made way and Mauricio Pochettino and Chelsea will be left with a tough decision over the midfielder's future after a year when he has struggled for first-team minutes under multiple managers.
Outside of a consistent role in first team training, Chukwuemeka has been offered little opportunity to develop in the Premier League, whether he can earn more significant minutes when the squad is cut down remains to be seen.
Chelsea's under-20 World Cup talents will all pose early questions of Pochettino however. Casadei has shone away from the club and will look to step up a level from his Reading challenge, while Humphreys impressed on loan at Paderborn and Vale endured a difficult time at Hull before showing once again he was ready to graduate from the development team.
Santos too will arrive at Cobham this summer having had rumoured first-team involvment but is perhaps more likely to follow the transition Casadei was offered to familiarise himself with British football. The Brazilian is currently on loan with Vasco Da Gama and playing in the top domestic division for the first time.
Chelsea have clearly found top, young talents and persuaded them to join Chelsea. Next they need to find the correct pathways.
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