“I always wanted to score against Chelsea for them to sign me” – Player finally reveals
Armando Broja, a striker for Chelsea, has explained how he got to Chelsea when he was just 9 years old.
Broja spent two years in the Spurs academy before joining Chelsea in 2009.
The 21-year-old has admitted that he has supported Chelsea since he was 3 years old and that he was desperate to score against them in order for the team to sign him.
Speaking about his decision to join Chelsea from Tottenham, Broja told The Players’ Tribune: “I remember going to a tournament. The Tottenham scout actually came to watch another boy.
“I happened to obviously play well that tournament and I got top goalscorer and I got best player at the tournament so they approached my mum and dad before I even knew about it.
“So, when I came back my mum and dad said, ‘Tottenham came over to us’ and I was thinking, ‘who’s Tottenham?’
“Because I was quite young, I didn’t really know anything apart from my Sunday league team. So in my head it was just Burnham Juniors – that’s all I knew!
“So, they were like ‘Oh Tottenham is in the Premier League, this, this, this, this and I was like, ‘oh wow’. I said, ‘I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go’.
“And they were like, ‘we’re obviously speaking to them’. But I was so happy because I thought, ‘wow, I’m going to play for a big team’.
“[But] my mum’s first cousin, he’s a massive Chelsea fan. He would take me to every Chelsea game when I was like three or four so I always supported Chelsea.
“He loves Chelsea so in my head I just supported Chelsea, but I didn’t know the rivalry between Tottenham [and] Chelsea so when I did join Tottenham I didn’t know what it was going to be like.
“In my head when I was at Tottenham, I supported them [Chelsea], but I always wanted to beat them because I wanted to show the Chelsea staff and everyone there that I want to join Chelsea.
“I was on the bench and then I was begging my manager to come on, ‘please let me, we’re losing 2-0’.
“As soon as I came on, I got an assist and then I got a goal after that so we drew 2-2.
Set featured image“And then we moved over to the other side of the pitch and played the other team.
“We won 12-0 I think, and I scored nine. Straight after that, the two Chelsea guys came over and said ‘wow, we want you’.
“When they said that I didn’t think of anything else, I just wanted to join Chelsea.
“So eventually that obviously did happen and joined Chelsea end of U9s, start of U10s so I’ve been there since then.”
The stage is now set for Broja to shine this season, after impressing on loan with Southampton last season.