One Chelsea youngster has just been nominated for Premier League 2 Player of the Season because of an excellent year in the academy.

The Blues youth set-up at Cobham has been producing future stars for several decades now.

If you look at Chelsea’s current first-team squad, the likes of Reece James, Conor Gallagher and Levi Colwill all developed as youngsters in the club’s academy. It’s been great to see Alfie Gilchrist follow in their footsteps by moving into the first-team building this season, too.

So, who will be the next breakout talent to emerge from Chelsea’s youth ranks? It could be a wise guess to predict it’s the teenager who’s just been nominated for an individual award.

Chelsea youngster up for Premier League 2 Player of the Season

Chelsea’s Leo Castledine is the talented youngster included on an eight-man shortlist for the Premier League 2 Player of the Season.

For those who don’t follow much academy football, Chelsea’s Under-21s side compete in the Premier League 2, which is a competition that runs in a single league format before ending up in a play-off tournament to decide the winner. Incidentally, the Blues are through to the semi-finals to face Tottenham this Sunday.

Castledine, the attacking midfielder, has been instrumental to the success of the Chelsea U21s team so far

He’s scored 10 goals and made nine assists in 19 matches in the PL2 competition.

Here below are the eight players nominated for Player of the Season on the Premier League’s official website:

Zach Abbott (Nottingham Forest)
Leo Castledine (Chelsea )
Jamie Donley (Tottenham)
George Earthy (West Ham)
Will Lankshear (Tottenham)
Callum Marshall (West Ham)
Jude Soonsup-Bell (Tottenham)
Michael Stickland (Reading)

John Terry is a huge fan of Leo Castledine

It’s a very positive sign as a Chelsea prospect when a club legend like John Terry speaks so glowingly about you.

Castledine, who’s only 18, has made one first-team appearance in Chelsea colours so far, with his senior debut coming back in January with a cameo off the bench in the League Cup versus Middlesbrough.

Afterwards, John Terry waxed lyrical about Castledine on social media and picked him out as a youngster that he loves.

Terry wrote on X back in January: “Congratulations Leo. Love him and so will the Chelsea fans, he is like a magnet in the box.”

He’s an future star in the making that every Chelsea supporter should be keeping an eye out for in the upcoming years.