Billy Gilmour has been honoured with the award recognising achievement while playing for Chelsea’s Academy teams, following a successful season for the development squad which led to his emergence at men’s first-team level.
The midfielder joined Chelsea in the summer of 2017 from Glasgow Rangers and progressed through the Chelsea youth development ranks quickly, picking up the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award for August 2019 after a memorable few weeks for the youngster. He had earlier signed a new contract and made his senior debut but ultimately his 2019/20 season was cut short by a knee injury that required surgery in July.
In the same month Gilmour made the six-man shortlist for the PL2 Player of the Season award. Chelsea’s development squad were later named PL2 champions after the season’s league table was finalised on a points-per-game basis. Gilmour captained the development squad side on numerous occasions, starting 11 of the 18 PL2 games, scoring two goals and assisting for four of them as Andy Myers’ team clinched the title.
Across all Academy competitions the Scotsman made 15 appearances, catching the eye of Frank Lampard earlier enough for his senior debut to come last August in a Premier League match at home to Sheffield United. In total, Gilmour was given 11 outings by Lampard last term. Among them were two man-of-the-match performances in wins against Liverpool and Everton.
The announcement of the Academy Player of the Season Award winner follows the unveiling of Goal of the Season earlier today. The winner of that accolade is Fikayo TomorI for his rocket shot against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.
The Player of the Year for the men’s and women’s teams will be announced later today.
Chelsea Academy Player of the Year
2015 Dominic Solanke2016 Fikayo Tomori2017 Mason Mount2018 Reece James2019 Conor Gallager2020 Billy Gilmour