:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46116448/GettyImages-469580064.0.jpg)
Four days.
Three games. Three wins.
Two countries. Two competitions. Two appearances. Two goals.
One trophy.
Plenty of frequent flier miles. Memories for a lifetime.
"I got a phone call at lunchtime (on Friday) and I was told I had to come back to England because the first team needed me on the bench."
"So I was a bit shocked because I wanted to play the final and I didn't know whether I'd get back or not. It's been a bit of a rush but I'm glad I was here and also glad I was on the bench."
-Izzy Brown; source: Mail
There had been some consternation -- then again, when isn't there consternation? -- about Brown's suddenly jetset lifestyle disrupting his and the squad's preparations for Monday's UEFA Youth League final. Especially after Mourinho recalled the U19 captain only to then sit him firmly down on the bench, even figuring to use Kurt Zouma as an emergency striker instead and calling Brown not a striker, but "more of a winger" instead. Which is mostly true, but we needed an emergency backup striker and not an emergency backup non-striker, so why call up an emergency backup non-striker? But hey, all's well that ends well.
"It's a great experience for me and something I never thought would happen. It was our goal to win the Youth League at the start of the season and today we did that. We had many difficult games, every team is tough in their own way, but Shakhtar are a great side with great players and were hard to play against."
"In the second half we upped it by 5% and that's why we're champions. All of the first-team players wished me luck [yesterday] - they knew we could do this. John Terry said so on Instagram, he's a nice guy, and José Mourinho too."
-Izzy Brown; source: UEFA
BREAKING NEWS: John Terry, José Mourinho, nice guys. Also nice guys: César Azpilicueta and Thibaut Courtois. And others.
Congratulations boys!! "@ChelseaFC: Our Under-19 team have won the UEFA Youth League! The best in Europe at their age group. #CFCU19"
— César Azpilicueta (@CesarAzpi) April 13, 2015
Congrats to the #CFCU19 !! Great performance!! @ChelseaFC
— Thibaut Courtois (@thibautcourtois) April 13, 2015
Well done to @ChelseaFC u19s. Champions league winners. Congrats fellas #CFCU19
— Nathaniel Chalobah (@chalobah) April 13, 2015
they are having fun now #CFCU19 ⚽️
— Milan Lalkovic (@LalkovicMilan37) April 13, 2015
Fun times, indeed. Well done, Izzy Brown and Co!