Chelsea’s Armando Broja recalled an incident from his school-days, when the Blues’ local rivals Tottenham Hotspur tried to sign him. The striker, who made it big through Chelsea’s famous academy appears to take a brutal dig at Spurs, as his first reaction to the interest from the North Londoners, he tells was “Who’s Tottenham?”. However, the schoolboy did end up at Spurs, only for Chelsea to later snap him up.
Broja was in some demand this summer, after his impressive loan spell at Southampton attracted the likes of Arsenal, West Ham, Newcastle United and even from overseas with Napoli and Ajax tracking him. But former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel decided to keep him, after striker duo Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner left. While the Albanian is yet to score in his 6 appearances so far, he still has put in commendable workrate which is quite promising.
Broja explains his Tottenham stint, and why he left for Chelsea
Back in his school days, Armando Broja had trialled for a number of clubs including Fulham and Reading. However, he was picked by Tottenham for their Under-8s, where the striker spent two years. After he his two-year stint North London, Armando Broja moved to West as he was signed by Chelsea for their youth setup back in 2009. Talking to Players’ Tribune in an interview, Broja while recalling the incident tells:
“I was at Burnham Juniors, the club I was first at and I remember going to a tournament. The Tottenham scout actually came to watch another boy. I happened to play well that tournament, I got top goalscorer and best player. They approached my mum and dad before I even knew about it so when I came back, my mum and dad said; ‘Tottenham came over to us’. I was just thinking, ‘Who’s Tottenham?’. Because I was quite young, I only knew my Sunday league team [and Chelsea].
“So, they were like ‘Oh Tottenham is in the Premier League, this, this, this, this and I was like, ‘oh wow’. I said, ‘I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go. And they were like, ‘we’re obviously speaking to them’. But I was so happy because I thought, ‘wow, I’m going to play for a big team’.”
However, he further added that Chelsea was his ‘first love’ and that he always wanted to play for the Blues. And it were his exploits while plying for the Spurs’ youth team, that Chelsea scouted and immediately signed him. Revealing how he finally made it to West London, Broja said:
“In my head when I was at Tottenham, I supported them [Chelsea], but I always wanted to beat them because I wanted to show the Chelsea staff and everyone there that I want to join Chelsea.
“I was on the bench [for a game] and then I was begging my manager to come on, ‘please let me, we’re losing 2-0. As soon as I came on, I got an assist and then I got a goal after that so we drew 2-2. And then we moved over to the other side of the pitch and played the other team. We won 12-0 I think, and I scored nine. Straight after that, the two Chelsea guys came over and said ‘wow, we want you’. When they said that I didn’t think of anything else, I just wanted to join Chelsea. So eventually that obviously did happen and I joined Chelsea end of U9s, start of U10s so I’ve been there since then.”
Broja finally penned his first professional contract in 2020 with the Blues, and was then sent on loan to Southampton last summer. He recorded 9 goals in 38 games in all competitions for the Saints, but was massively lauded for his robust qualities. Southampton wanted him back at south coast, but Chelsea insisted he is not for sale and rather involved him in their first-team project. While he still has competition in front of him after the club landed Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, Broja has every quality and the ability to snatch a starting spot ahead of the former Arsenal man.