Chelsea defender handed honour of captaining England U21s at European Championships

Chelsea’s academy has established itself as one of the world’s best in recent seasons – and our youngsters just keep on breaking new ground.

Jake Clarke-Salter, who spent the 2018/19 campaign on-loan at Vitesse Arnhem, will wear the armband for England at the U21 Euros this summer.

The FA announced the news on Monday morning, with Aidy Boothroyd seeing our Clarke-Salter as the right man to lead England to glory.

England U21s European Championship campaign kicks off against France U21s tomorrow night, and Clarke-Salter is confident they can go all the way.

He’s quoted by The FA saying:

“We know we have a big job to do over the next couple of weeks if we want to achieve the success we hope and believe we can at the Euros.”

“We’ve got a lot of natural leaders in the team and a lot of talent and we’re going to do everything we can to try and win this tournament.”

The path into the Chelsea first-team starting eleven is highly obstructed for Clarke-Salter, even if we’re looking long-term.

Andreas Christensen, Kurt Zouma, Ethan Ampadu and Fikayo Tomori will all provide competition, but this ought to give him real encouragement.

England’s senior team has an open-minded manager in Gareth Southgate, and one who has proven he’s prepared to give youngsters a chance.

If Chelsea are successful in appointing someone like minded this summer, Clarke-Salter will have a real opportunity to establish himself.

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