{"id":382122,"date":"2026-01-21T11:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382122\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T11:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:43:11","slug":"liam-rosenior-calls-up-16-year-old-chelsea-gem-to-first-team-training-ahead-of-pafos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382122\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Rosenior calls up 16-year-old Chelsea gem to first-team training ahead of Pafos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Liam Rosenior has been very open to giving youth players a chance since being appointed as Chelsea boss, and it\u2019s quite refreshing. <\/p>\n<p>The Blues have been known for their incredible academy facilities and wealth of youth talents at Cobham, but things have gone dry when it comes to homegrown stars of late. <\/p>\n<p>Reece James is the obvious one, and whilst he\u2019s still a star in the current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a> ranks, the club have switched to more of a foreign talent policy. <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re seeing more of your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/columnist\/chelsea-have-found-another-gem-that-no-one-is-talking-about-amid-estevao-willians-exploits\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Estevao Willian and Kendry Paez\u2019s of the world<\/a> coming over from South America, which has worked well so far, to be fair. <\/p>\n<p>Well, the academy ranks may just have produced a new star, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/liam-rosenior\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liam Rosenior<\/a> has handed the chance of training with the first team to a 16-year-old. <\/p>\n<p>          What should Liam Rosenior do with Shim Mheuka?\ud83e\udd14 <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">He&#8217;s too good to be in the academy!<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TCC-20-819x1024.png\" alt=\"Shim Mheuka stats this season\" class=\"wp-image-345155\" \/>Photo by Chris Lee \u2013 Chelsea FC\/Chelsea FC via Getty Images     <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>   Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli spotted in first team training at Chelsea<\/p>\n<p>Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli has made three appearances for Chelsea U21s, despite turning 16 years old just two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of months ago, Mahdi became Chelsea\u2019s youngest-ever goalscorer in the UEFA Youth League, and he\u2019s widely regarded as one of the club\u2019s most promising academy prospects.<\/p>\n<p>The youngster, however, isn\u2019t included in the Champions League squad, so it looks like it\u2019ll just be experience.<\/p>\n<p>          Who is the most exciting academy talent at Cobham right now?\ud83d\udc40 <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">Let us know of any young players we may have missed\u2026<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TCC-41-819x1024.png\" alt=\"Chelsea top academy prospect\" class=\"wp-image-346622\" \/>Photo by Joris Verwijst\/BSR Agency\/Getty Images     <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time that he\u2019s training with the first team squad at Chelsea, but it is the first time he\u2019s been spotted in images since Liam Rosenior was appointed. <\/p>\n<p>And one exciting thing about Mahdi is the fact that he\u2019s been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/news\/chelsea-told-they-have-a-15-year-old-prospect-with-an-even-higher-ceiling-than-max-dowman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tipped to have a higher ceiling than Arsenal wonderkid Max Dowman<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>  Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Rosenior has been very open to giving youth players a chance since being appointed as Chelsea boss,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,107706,94327,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-382122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-liam-rosenior","tag-mahdi-nicoll-jazuli","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}