\n<\/p>\n
Derry has already tasted first-team football twice, coming off the bench in a 4-0 FA Cup fourth-round victory over Hull City back in February. His first Premier League start followed months later at Nottingham Forest, a night cut short when he needed a stretcher after colliding heads with an opponent.<\/span><\/p>\n The teenager, who joined from Crystal Palace last summer after scoring 19 goals in 23 appearances for the club’s Under-18s, has been tipped as one of the brightest prospects to come through Chelsea’s academy in recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n “It’s a dream come true to commit my future to such a big club like Chelsea,” Derry said after signing his deal. “I’m just so excited for what’s to come.<\/span><\/p>\n “This last 12 months, I feel like a completely different player than when I first joined and that’s credit to all the coaches I’ve worked with. They’ve played such a big part in helping me get better.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Just having that little snippet of playing for the first team last season, I couldn’t have thought of anywhere else I’d want to be for my future. It was a no-brainer.”<\/span><\/p>\n The loan agreement with Sporting has not yet been formally completed, but a temporary move to Portugal is seen as the next step in Derry’s development, offering regular senior football and potential European experience away from the pressure of a title-chasing Chelsea squad. He has already progressed through the club’s Under-21 side, featuring in Premier League 2 and the UEFA Youth League.<\/span><\/p>\n Derry, the son of former player and manager Shaun Derry, has also represented England at Under-17 and Under-18 level, and scored in group games against Germany and the Netherlands at last summer’s European Under-19 Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n Chelsea have built a reputation for sending promising young players out on loan to develop, and Sporting are considered a strong environment for Derry to continue his rise before a potential return to Stamford Bridge.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Derry has already tasted first-team football twice, coming off the bench in a 4-0 FA…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}