Official: Alfie Gilchrist extends Chelsea contract

Earlier reports indicated young defender Alfie Gilchrist put pen to paper to a new Chelsea contract, extending his club link until 2025. And now we have official confirmation from the club on the news.

Coming from a Chelsea-supporting family, Gilchrist strayed from the path for a little while by taking his first touches in football for Queen’s Park Rangers before joining the Blues as an under-11 player. A few years later he was named Scholar of the Year at Chelsea while regularly featuring for our U18 squad, signing his first professional contract during the 2020-21 season.

After captaining the U18 team in our 2021-22 Premier League Cup win, Gilchrist became a regular for the U21 squad under manager Mark Robinson last season. He took the captain’s armband again after Bashir Humphreys’ exit on loan to German club Paderborn in January this year.

Thus far he’s only made unused substitution appearances at the senior level for Chelsea, and played a few minutes during our USA tour this preseason. But the contract extension is a good sign he is set to get regular professional matches from the winter transfer window on during a loan deal.