The special guests were invited into Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham to watch their heroes in action.

Before they stepped onto the training pitch, the visitors gathered in the press room for a question-and-answer session with Chelsea TV's Lee Parker and Chelsea legend Carlo Cudicini, who discussed his current role as loan technical coach.

Following that, it was time to head out onto the grass where they watched training, before the Chelsea men’s squad spent time with the special guests and signed memorabilia.

One of the fans, William Reed, said: ‘That was the best day of my life, absolutely brilliant! I can’t believe I met all the players and Mauricio Pochettino who is such a nice guy. Thank you to Chelsea Foundation for making it happen.’

The visit came at a special time for Jacob Morgan and Kyiel Walker-Brown who were both celebrating upcoming birthdays.

Jacob said: ‘My birthday is next week so it’s a special birthday treat to be here. Cole Palmer is my favourite player so was a dream come true to meet him and all of the squad. I had posters of them all in my hospital room so it was amazing to meet them all in person.’

Kyiel said: ‘To be able to come to Chelsea’s training ground on the day before my birthday was fantastic. It was great to meet all of the players, especially Raheem Sterling who is an inspiration to me.’

Charlie Kelleir, who was joined by his best friend Ollie, said: ‘I had an amazing time, Thiago Silva is a legend so it was brilliant to meet him and the rest of the team.’

Joshua Curtis and Ethan Hazell were both particularly delighted to meet Mauricio Pochettino with Ethan calling him ‘number one!’