Aina makes mark at Chelsea

John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses might be the most familiar names at English Premiership side, Chelsea while Kenneth Omeruo, who recently signed a new deal at the club has not played a single official game for the club.

Another Nigerian is slowly making his mark in the club and might be part of new coach Antonio Conte’s plan for the new season.

London-born, Ola Aina (Temitayo Olufisayo Olaoluwa Aina), is looking to break into Chelsea’s first-team squad after impressing the Italian.

Aina joined Chelsea at the tender age of 11 and slowly began asserting himself within the Chelsea academy and youth setup.

The 19-year-old started out as a right winger for the Chelsea youth sides but later got converted to a right-back, attacking right back, something in the mode of Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin albeit Aina is more physically endowed than the Spaniard.

His key strengths are his technique, crossing ability and pace which has seen him become one of the top performers in Chelsea’s pre-season build-up. Aina has already played against Rapid Vienna, RZ Pellets, Liverpool and Real Madrid this summer.

Not that this will be his first time to play with the first-team though he is yet to play an official game for the first-team.

He was picked by former Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, for the pre-season tour of 2015 and was even named on the bench for the league game against Swansea and the League Cup game with Walsall that year.

Aina has represented England at youth level from the under-16s through to the under-20s and has won several youth laurels with Chelsea but like his club mate Victor Moses, a run-out with Nigeria is a possibility.

With Stanislav Ivanovic unavailable at the moment, Aina might just get thrown into the deep end when the Premier League kicks off in August.

Conte is known for his work ethics, hard work and organisation and Aina’s qualities fit the bill. The Italian manager might put his trust in Aina when Chelsea start the new campaign against West Ham United.

supersport.com