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Chelsea have confirmed 12 first-year academy scholars ahead of the 2026\/27 season.<\/strong><\/p>\n The group visited Stamford Bridge earlier this month for a special evening. The event marked their move into full-time football.<\/p>\n Chelsea named Kwamina Ampah, Jack Anderson, Emmanuel Ayinde, Isaac Collinson, Isaac Badu Da Silva, Heze Grimwade, Jayden Malundama, Jake Murray, Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, Andrew Pennie, Gabriel Sambou and Reggie Watson in the new scholar group.<\/p>\n Dan Hogan will stay on as Under-18s head coach. He led Chelsea to the Premier League national title last season. Frazer Robertson will continue as assistant coach.<\/p>\n ReadChelsea covered Xabi Alonso\u2019s first Chelsea training session at Cobham within the last 24 hours. The academy pathway already feels relevant to the new first-team era.<\/p>\n Several of the scholars have already played above their age group.<\/p>\n Nicoll-Jazuli is the headline name. The attacking midfielder became Chelsea\u2019s youngest-ever UEFA Youth League starter. He later became the club\u2019s youngest scorer in the competition.<\/p>\n Badu Da Silva also arrives with strong academy experience. The defensive midfielder became a regular for the Under-18s while still a schoolboy. He has also played for the Under-21s in the EFL Trophy.<\/p>\n Pennie, Grimwade, Sambou and Watson have all gained Under-18 or Under-21 experience. Collinson and Murray add England youth pedigree in goal.<\/p>\n Chelsea\u2019s academy remains one of the club\u2019s clearest routes to value and depth. The challenge now is turning promise into senior opportunities.<\/p>\n Alonso\u2019s arrival adds another layer to that pathway. Every young player at Cobham now has a new manager to impress.<\/p>\n The new scholars will start that process under Hogan in the Under-18s. For the best of the group, the next step can arrive quickly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chelsea have confirmed 12 first-year academy scholars ahead of the 2026\/27 season. The group visited…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16194","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\/16194","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=16194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Nicoll-Jazuli Leads Strong Scholar Group<\/h2>\n