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One of the youngest players, if not the youngest player in camp with Chelsea this summer is Scotland U21 international Billy Gilmour. Once the “jewel” of Rangers’ Academy, the recently turned 18-year-old was named the “Revelation of the Tournament” at Toulon last summer and then spent last season starring for Chelsea’s U19 (UEFA Youth League) and U23 teams (Premier League 2, EFL Trophy), scoring 9 goals in all competitions.
He’s clearly ready for the next step already, whatever that may be. For now, he’s looking to soak up anything and everything he can from the man he’s looking to model his game after. (Last summer, he talked about also looking up to Cesc Fàbregas, so he’s certainly getting some good examples to follow.)
“My favourite Chelsea player growing up would probably be the gaffer [Lampard], definitely. Also I will model myself on his game, scoring goals, box-to-box midfielder. So I would definitely say the gaffer.”
Billy was manning Chelsea’s official Instagram account for a brief Q&A with fans, and among hard-hitting questions like what’s his go-to Nando’s order and whether he or Ethan Ampadu is better at FIFA, he also gave a bit of an insight into what preseason has been like so far. Unsurprisingly, the emphasis has been on (re-)gaining fitness.
“The first few days under the gaffer has been really good, hard working. A lot of running, but obviously it’s the first time away with the first team, so it has been really good and a great experience for me.”
-Billy Gilmour; source: @chelseafc via Football.London
Whatever may be next for Billy, this is probably not the last time we’re going to hear from him.