Chelsea have produced countless brilliant players in recent years, with the likes of Levi Colwill, Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah all flying the flag for Cobham in Enzo Maresca’s squad.
You’ve also got famous examples like Declan Rice, Michael Olise, Nathan Ake and Conor Gallagher – players who developed their skills in Chelsea’s youth ranks before finding their path elsewhere.
Some forgotten Chelsea academy graduates have gone on to enjoy cult hero status elsewhere. We’ve rounded up seven that belong in that category.
Fikayo Tomori
This one’s arguably a touch too famous to be included here, admittedly. An England international who plays for one of European football’s glamour clubs.
But it’s all too easy to forget about Tomori out at AC Milan given Serie A’s faded lustre, while he largely found himself frozen out of Gareth Southgate’s England plans and snubbed for the major tournaments.
The centre-back will always enjoy hero status at the San Siro for the starring role he played in the Rossoneri’s 2021-22 Scudetto, the only league title they’ve won in the last 14 years.
It remains to be seen where his future lies, with Newcastle, Aston Villa and Juventus all linked in recent days.
Tomori was unfancied by Paulo Fonseca in a difficult start to 2024-25, but he’s recently returned to the fold under Sergio Conceicao. Whatever happens next, his legacy in Milan is secure.
Ola Aina
The full-back made six appearances for Antonio Conte’s Chelsea back in the 2016-17 title-winning campaign, but he never progressed to make it beyond the fringes at Stamford Bridge.
Since then he made over a hundred Serie A appearances at Torino and has produced the best football of his career since returning to England with Nottingham Forest in 2023.
We’ll see what happens with Nottingham Forest’s unlikely top-four push, while Aina is out of contract in the summer.
For now, the Nigeria international has been a key cog in Nuno Espirito Santo’s immense backline. This might be the Premier League’s biggest underdog story since Leicester City’s fairytale title triumph.
John Swift
Swift made a solitary Premier League appearance for his boyhood Blues under Jose Mourinho in the title-winning 2013-14 season, a late cameo in a 2-1 victory over Cardiff City.
He’s since spent his entire career in the Football League, establishing himself as one of the Championship’s very best players for a long old while at Reading.
The midfielder has clocked up over 100 appearances in the second tier for West Brom after signing as a free agent in 2022, but he was arguably never better than his Madejski days.
He produced countless moments of magic across his six years with the Royals, offering a beacon of hope amid their descent into the financial quagmire.
Nathaniel Chalobah
After originally impressing Watford on loan from Chelsea as a teenager, starting in the Hornets’ 2013 play-off final defeat to a Wilfried Zaha-inspired Crystal Palace, Chalobah went on to flourish a second time in the second tier at Vicarage Road.
He was a key part of Watford’s last promotion-winning campaign in 2021-22. He repeated the trick the following year at Fulham, although that time around he wasn’t nearly as influential.
Having coached him at youth level, Gareth Southgate was a huge fan of Chalobah. He even handed the midfielder a full England debut back in 2018, despite injuries limiting his minutes early on at Watford.
Unfortunately, he never quite developed into a regular England international, and the 30-year-old is currently struggling for game time at Sheffield Wednesday.
Gael Kakuta
The ultimate modern-day journeyman, Kakuta’s career hasn’t quite planned out as expected when he was poached from Lens as a teenager, a signing that ultimately led to Chelsea being handed a FIFA charge and transfer ban.
Nowadays the Congolese winger is turning out for Iranian outfit Esteghlal FC, the 14th different club he’s represented (including six on loan from Chelsea in his early years).
At very few of those clubs would you describe him as a cult hero, given he rarely left an impression or stuck around longer than a season.
But in his late twenties, Kakuta enjoyed a brief resurgence back home at Lens, and in 2020-21 he won the 2021 Marc-Vivien Foe award for the best African player in Ligue 1 – won in previous years by the likes of Victor Osimhen, Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Fabio Borini
The Italian never made it at Chelsea and flopped hard at Liverpool before finding his feet at Sunderland.
Borini wasn’t always brilliant for the Black Cats, and he cut a sorry figure in their miserable 2016-17 relegation campaign under David Moyes.
But that was quickly forgotten when he scored home and away as Sunderland completed a Tyne-Wear double over Newcastle in 2013-14.
Goals that ensure he’ll never have to buy a pint of Moretti on Wearside as long as he lives.
Kasey Palmer
Like Chalobah and Swift, Palmer is a player who showed promise at Cobham but has ultimately found his level in the Championship. No shame in that.
The midfielder is currently turning out for Hull City and spent time at Bristol City, but it’s another City – Coventry – where he’s most warmly regarded.
Fans of the Sky Blues rallied around Palmer after he suffered racist abuse by an opposition fan last season.
During his two years with the Sky Blues, Palmer featured prominently in two memorable runs to Wembley.
Unfortunately, he was limited to a brief cameo in the 2023 play-off final defeat to Luton and was suspended the following year for the FA Cup semi against Manchester United.