The recent rise of danish centre-back Andreas Christensen should not come as a surprise to anyone as the 21-year-old has been impressing this season. His recent performances have had people comparing him to Chelsea’s lifelong captain, leader and legend John Terry.
Christensen’s performances so far has seen him become an integral part of Chelsea’s three-man defence, playing alongside players such as the ever reliable Cesar Azpilicueta and keeping top class players such as David Luiz outside the starting eleven.
The Dane’s career started at an early age but the chap from Lillerød signed for Superliga team Brøndby IF at the age of only eight and at the age of eighteen he moved to the English capital and signed for top European team Chelsea FC. After enjoying a successful few years in the Chelsea academy, including winning the UEFA Youth Champions League with the U19s team.
PHOTO: Getty Images
In 2015 after making one Premier League appearance in Chelsea’s winning campaign under Jose Mourinho, Christensen signed a two-year loan deal with german side Borussia Mönchengladbach, making his Bundesliga debut in a 4-0 loss against rivals Borussia Dortmund. Andreas impressed in his first season in Germany, even scoring a brace in a 5-1 win against Werder Bremen even being voted the team’s Player of the Season, beating now Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka.
In the summer of 2016 and with Christensen having become a real fan favourite at Borussia-Park and a regular starter for Die Fohlen, the german side made multiple attempts on signing Christensen on a permanent, bidding close to £15.000.000 for the Dane but Chelsea rejecting every single bid, being determined on him being one for the future at Stamford Bridge. Christensen continued to impress in his second season, proving to be one of Europe’s brightest young talents. In his second season in the Bundesliga, Christensen only received one yellow card and finished the season with 91% pass accuracy, making only three defensive errors in 31 appearances.
PHOTO: Getty Images
In July of 2017, Christensen’s loan deal with The Borussians officially came to an end and was sure to be deep down the pecking order after Chelsea’s title winning season with Italian coach Antonio Conte boasted arguably three of last season’s best centre-backs in Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz and Gary Cahill, even with german defender Antonio Ruediger making a move from AS Roma.
PHOTO: Getty Images
Chelsea’s first game of the 2017/18 season was a disastrous home loss to Burnley with Chelsea losing their captain Gary Cahill off with a red card early in the game. The dismissal of Cahill who had been chosen the natural successor to John Terry proved to be a real shock for the Blues as they conceded three goals in the first half and Christensen having been substituted on for winger Jeremie Boga to level things out at the back, The game ended with Burnley winning 3-2 at the Bridge and Christensen’s first game of the season was a total disaster.
The red card sent Chelsea’s captain into a three-match suspension, ruling him out for the game away to Tottenham. In stepped Christensen and was praised for his brilliant composure for a young defender as Chelsea beat The Lillywhites 2-1. Later in the season and after a few poor performances from David Luiz, Antonio Conte decided to give Christensen more playing time in order to shake things up at the back after some appalling defending in their 3-0 loss to Roma and Conte took Luiz out and put Christensen in, after the loss to Roma on the 31st of October, Chelsea had conceded 20 goals in all competitions but after that game Chelsea have only conceded nine goals to date in all competitions and only six in the Premier League.
Chelsea’s no. 27 looks like he might become a club legend if he continues playing the way he has, with composure and pace that can keep up with the quickest of attackers. This season, Christensen has maintained 94% pass accuracy and is yet to receive a booking for an offence meaning he plays the game as a gentleman and with Antonio Conte stating the Dane can become as good as John Terry and captain Chelsea in the coming future with him recently signing a new four-and-a-half deal with the club and the 21-year-old looks destined to greatness.
PHOTO: Mirror
Post by: Emil Árnason
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