Chelsea offer scholarship deal to teenage Nigerian striker Chizaram Ezenwata

NIGERIA-eligible teenage striker Chizaram Ezenwata has signed a scholarship deal with English Premier League giants Chelsea after successful trials with the club and is now hoping to secure a professional contract once he turns 16.

Chizaram, 15, popularly known as Chizzy, is a centre forward who also plays anywhere across the forward line. He joined Chelsea from Charlton Athletic having started his football career at Tottenham Hotspur Academy, where he was signed as an U9 player during the 2017/18 season.

Described by some UK football academy scouts as one of the best and top strikers in England, Chizzy was later released by Tottenham at the end of the U12 season in 2021 and moved to Charlton Athletic, where he has spent the last two seasons playing for their U13s, U14s and U15s. At Charlton, he scored over 40 goals and provided 20 assists in the U13 team and scored over 60 goals and provided over 30 assists during the last U14/15 season.

This attracted the interest of big Premier League clubs like Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Brighton,  Chelsea and Liverpool. However, Chelsea won the race to sign the highly talented and prolific goalscorer after he impressed the coaching and  management staff during an eight week trials period.

Apparently, Charlton Athletic was compensated by Chelsea as Chizaram was still officially their player when he was signed. Chelsea have not offered the youngster a schoolboy and early scholarship deal that will see him stay at the club until 2027 at the very least.

Chizzy is eligible to play for England, Nigeria and Cameroon as he has a Nigerian father and a Cameroonian mother and he was born in England. So far, he has not been invited to camp by any international youth team so far.