Mukhtar Ali celebrates his birthday by signing a professional contract with Chelsea

Chelsea academy product Mukhtar Ali has been having an exciting Friday. Having turned 17 on Thursday, he spent he quickly sat down with the club and put pen to paper on his first professional deal.

Very happy to sign my professional contract with Chelsea FC. Proud moment for me and my family. pic.twitter.com/rQWqgNccmy

— Mukhtar Ali (@MukzA97) October 31, 2014

Ali burst onto the scene with the U18 side last season, and was impressive enough as a 16-year old to warrant a few chances to sit on the U21 bench before the season was completed. Ali can play in the midfield and in defense, but is probably best deployed as a box-to-box central midfielder at this point in his young career. While being born in Somalia, he's represented England at the international level in both the U16 and U17 levels.

Ali does have one spectacular highlight to his name already, and we'll leave you to watch it and comment away: