Rumours of Ben Chilwell leaving Leicester to join Manchester City and other big European clubs have sparked up after a fantastic season of the young defender with the “Foxes”, who ended the season 5 points short of reaching Europa League spot.

Ben Chilwell is a 22-year-old defender from England and a product of Leicester youth academy. His professional football career started with Leicester U18 team, from where Ben Chilwell climbed to U23 and ultimately the senior squad. In November 2015, Ben Chilwell was loaned out to Huddersfield, where he remained up to January 2016, when he returned back to Leicester. Ever since his return from a loan, Ben Chilwell became a key starter in the team, slowly improving as a player and is now considered one of the most promising young defenders in the world.
With his phenomenal performances, which also got him into the English national team, it did not take long for other, bigger clubs to take notice of Ben Chilwell and expressed their desire to bring him to their teams.
Even Tony Cottee, the former professional footballer and manager, who now works as a television football commentator had some words to say about the young left-back. In an interview, he stated he was impressed by the playstyle and huge improvement of Ben Chilwell in recent years.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on him over the three seasons since he emerged.”
“He’s got a fantastic left foot, a great engine and I think it was only a question of time before he actually made himself a regular at Leicester. I love attacking full-backs, the role of full-backs has changed so much now.
“It used to be about how good a defender you are, but now it’s more about getting forward, the quality of your delivery and being able to create things really and I think Ben, you get all that.
With a lot of recognition, Ben Chilwell got due to his phenomenal performances, there were reportedly three big European clubs interested in signing him, which include Arsenal, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid.
Unai Emery stated the club is highly interested in bringing Ben Chilwell to the team that is currently trying to move some of the deadwood out of the team. Other reports stated it’s the EPL champions Manchester City who are also interested in grabbing Ben Chilwell before any other team gets a chance to do so. Moving to Manchester City would arguably be a dream of many English footballers, especially at such a young age, however, Pep Guardiola’s plans just might fall into the water. Stating he does not want to move to Manchester City, Ben Chilwell made the Sky Blues rethink their plans of reinforcing their backline. Another offer for Ben Chilwell arrived from sunny Spain as well, with the name Atletico Madrid on it, who are currently looking for a replacement for their veteran Filipe Louis will leave the club this summer. After sending out scouts all over Europe, Atletico Madrid found Ben Chilwell to be the best fit for their squad and it’s believed Diego Simeone will do anything to bring him to the team.
While there are several big clubs that have Ben Chilwell on their wish list, they are all well aware that they will need to pay big money to lure the young star out of Leicester. Having signed a new contract, the youngster won’t come cheap, as it was reported Leicester will be looking for at least €60 million in return for the left-back. Additionally, they will need to convince Ben himself, which might be harder as it seems after reports of Ben being happy in Leicester. At the end of the day, Ben Chilwell is still very young and should have more than enough time to develop even further and move to any club he would desire in the future. With plenty of chances to shine on the grand stage, with England in the Nation’s League, we can understand why Ben Chilwell is not in a hurry to leave his home club just yet.
Sports journalist, content writer and passionate football lover.