Callum Hudson-Odoi aspires to be as confident on the pitch as Maradona

Chelsea’s managerial merry-go-round currently dominates paper talk around Chelsea, so here’s something a little different thanks to Goal’s Carlo Garganese, who caught up with Callum Hudson-Odoi at the premiere of the new Diego Maradona documentary (ed.note: the latest film from Asif Kapadia, whose SENNA documentary is amazing, exceptional, and required viewing).

While the documentary focuses on many of the darker and quite dramatic aspects of Maradona’s time in Naples, Hudson-Odoi sees man’s legendary confidence as something he can try to emulate on the pitch.

“The way that he always loved to create as many goals as possible. Also, the confidence that he showed in every game – he didn’t care [about others] when he tried to do something – if he made a mistake, he kept on going. I think I can get that same [level of] confidence and keep doing my stuff and keep being myself. I’m a big fan of Maradona.

“I’ve been watching him since I was very young. He was a great player, left-footed. He liked to dribble with the ball and score goals. I’m a big fan.

-Callum Hudson-Odoi; source: Goal

Goal also conducted a brief but fun fact-or-fiction quiz with Callum about the infamous escapades of Diego Maradona, with the 18-year-old getting the vast majority of the questions correct. Winning!

Callum is just at the start of what’s hopefully a long and great career, but if he’s able to get to even just half of Maradona’s level, we can certainly look forward to some sensational years ahead. That’s assuming talks of Hudson-Odoi imminently signing a shiny new five-year contract aren’t just false hopes. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge.

To underline the uncertainty of that situation, Callum flew out this weekend to attend Antonio Rüdiger’s wedding in Germany (and hang out with his “broo” Bakayoko!) — congrats, Toni! — and he made the mistake of briefly sharing that on his Instagram story before deleting it ... but not before sparking a bit of a media frenzy over there. Oops. Time to sign that Chelsea contract!

On a side note, it’s great to see Callum Hudson-Odoi already moving around without crutches. While he’s still got quite a long way to go for full fitness, hopefully this does mean that recovery is going reasonably well. Chelsea’s new No.10 (please please please) certainly can’t return soon enough!