The Chelsea badge has adorned Levi Colwill’s shirt for over a decade. And he believes now is the time for him to enjoy the feeling of holding silverware wearing blue.
Of course, Colwill won tournaments and trophies as a young boy coming through the Chelsea Academy. But since stepping up to play for the first team at the start of last season, it is an experience that has eluded him. Our Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool is the closest he has come.
Having scored the goal that secured a Champions League berth for next season, Colwill now has another opportunity to get his hands on a tangible prize. It lying just around the corner. We meet Real Betis in the final of the UEFA Conference League on Wednesday evening.
‘It would mean everything to me to win a trophy,’ says Levi.
‘Being Chelsea through and through, to win a competition for the club is what I dreamed of as a kid, and as many kids in the Academy now will be doing.
‘We have looked at it the whole time as if we have got to win it. The team has done really well. The players that have been playing have done amazing, and I’m really happy to go to the final and hopefully win it.
‘Winning this competition for Chelsea would be huge because it would make us the most complete club. That’s bragging rights for the fans, that’s a lot. We definitely have to win it for them. If we’re in it, we have to try and win it. And we believe we can.’
The 22-year-old reckons victory in Poland would carry with it additional, bigger-picture benefits that would supplement Champions League qualification nicely.
‘Being able to win a competition with Chelsea shows you have it in you to go on and push and win many more things in the future. It would give us that confidence, which would be a big part of it.
‘For many players, it would be the first trophy we’ve won as players and for Chelsea. It would be huge for all of us, to get it under our belt and then go and win big competitions in the future.
‘Only the people outside our bubble underrate this competition,’ adds the defender.
‘Here at the club we know how big a competition it is. It’s still a European competition with really good teams in there, so if we win that it can give us the confidence and the belief to win more trophies with the club.’
And for Colwill, a Chelsea player since he was eight years old, it would mean the realisation of a childhood dream.