As another successful year for the Chelsea Academy draws to a close, we look back at the graduates who made the step up to feature for the Blues in senior football for the first time over the last 12 months.
The end of 2025 saw both our most senior Academy teams going into their winter break in the title hunt in their respective leagues. Chelsea Under-21s sit four points off the top of the Premier League 2, while the Blues are second in the Under-18 Premier League, three points behind the leaders having played three games less.
However, ultimately, the goal of our Academy is to develop players who can progress to the next level in their careers and take their first steps in senior football at Chelsea.
The last 12 months may not have hit the incredible high of the 10 Academy graduates who made their senior debuts during the previous year, but there were still some impressive performances as players made their first appearances. We look at every senior Chelsea debut by Academy players in 2025...
Genesis Antwi
13 March 2025
An attack-minded full-back who has also featured as a wing-back and a winger on both flanks for our Academy, it was on the right wing that Antwi made his senior bow. The Swedish youth international came off the bench to replace Pedro Neto late on at Stamford Bridge when we faced Copenhagen in the UEFA Conference League in March.
He helped us to see out a 1-0 win in the second leg of that last 16 tie, completing a 3-1 aggregate victory. Antwi made the second of his two senior appearances so far later in that glorious European campaign, playing the last 20 minutes of the 1-0 semi-final second-leg win over Djurgarden at the Bridge.
Reggie Walsh
1 May 2025
Walsh was still a schoolboy when he made his senior Chelsea debut in May. The midfielder travelled with the men's squad to Sweden for the first leg of last season's Conference League semi-final and was introduced by Enzo Maresca to replace fellow Academy graduate Tyrique George near the end.
The teenager then made his first senior start in the second leg of that tie at Stamford Bridge, playing the full 90 minutes of a 1-0 win, to follow up the 4-1 victory in the first game and book our place in the final.
He went full-time this season and has made two further senior appearances in 2025/26, coming off the bench in the Carabao Cup third-round win at Lincoln City and the 5-1 home victory over Ajax in the UEFA Champions League, shortly before signing his first professional contract with the Blues in October.