Levi Colwill is not sure why his parents are Liverpool supporters. “They’re from Southampton so I’ve got no clue,” the Chelsea defender says, as he looks forward to Sunday’s Carabao Cup final between the clubs at Wembley.
There is no danger of divided loyalties because, well, when your son is an elite-level footballer, that tends to override everything. But the more Colwill talks – and he is warm and easy company, mature beyond his 20 years – the more you start to wonder.
“My dad, Levi, is a real Liverpool fan … he tells me all the news, injuries, the knowledge that fans have that I wouldn’t really know myself,” Colwill says, and the conversation turns towards whether he ever teases him about Liverpool results. How about the notorious Steven Gerrard slip game against Chelsea?
“No, no. He always looks up to Gerrard so I can never do that,” Colwill replies. “But if we beat them, I will give him a bit of stick. When I was on loan at Brighton last season and we won 3-0, I gave my dad a bit and he didn’t like it! That was the first time I ever played against Liverpool so to win, especially, you have to give him a bit for it.”
It does not take long with Colwill to realise how much family means to him. His first Wembley memory is from 2014 when, as an 11-year Chelsea academy hopeful, he was the mascot for a Sholing team that featured three of his uncles. They took on West Auckland Town in the FA Vase final – the competition for clubs from steps nine to 11 of the English football pyramid – and one of them, Marvin McLean, scored the goal in a 1-0 win.
Colwill felt the pre-match focus and seriousness in his uncles, he remembers walking out with them and the team and, of course, the goal celebrations. It was an inspirational occasion for him. “When we scored, everyone was going crazy,” he says. “There is a video of it somewhere … one of my uncles has it, everyone jumping about. I just wanted to be like them.”
Wembley has been unkind to Colwill, especially in 2022 when it was his own goal that condemned his loan club, Huddersfield, to a 1-0 defeat in the Championship playoff final against Nottingham Forest. At Brighton last season, he was an unused substitute in the FA Cup semi-final penalty shootout loss to Manchester United. On the other hand, it was the scene of his England debut last October in the 1-0 friendly win over Australia.
Chelsea have only seemed to deal in wild extremes under Mauricio Pochettino this season and had the cup final been a few weeks ago – after the 4-1 drubbing at Liverpool and the 4-2 home defeat against Wolves – it would have been difficult to locate any optimism.
As it is, they enter on the back of an FA Cup win at Aston Villa, Premier League victory at Crystal Palace and a fighting draw at Manchester City. Colwill returned to the starting XI after injury against City, back in his favoured role of centre-half rather than needs-must left-back and he played well. He and Chelsea are ready.
“As a new team with new players, it takes a while to build that family feeling,” Colwill says. “We’re slowly getting there now. Against City, I felt it. In the second half, they had more possession and more chances than us but we really stuck in together and worked as one. When you’re playing in that, it makes your heart warm. It made a big difference. If we keep building on that, we will be fine soon.
“I’ve been a centre-half since I was under-15s; left-back has never really been my main position. I feel at home at centre-half, like I can play my best football, although I will play anywhere to help my team.”
Colwill’s journey at Chelsea has not been smooth. Growing up in the St Mary’s area of Southampton, he played cage football from the age of four or five, always the youngest, some of the others as old as 15. Chelsea took him into their academy at under-nine level and they did likewise with another prospect who lived in Southampton – Jamal Musiala, who is now at Bayern Munich.
The boys became firm friends – both turn 21 on Monday – and they would travel up from Southampton together, one of their parents doing the driving. That was until Chelsea moved Musiala into digs near to the training ground. They did not do that for Colwill; he continued to go up and down from Southampton.
Chelsea banked on Musiala, they did everything to accommodate him and it had to make his decision to sign for Bayern as a 16-year-old even harder to take. With Colwill, there were doubts over whether he would make the grade at the club. He talks of “going through a bad patch with football at 15” which, as an aside, was when his parents would make him watch games in which his now teammate, Thiago Silva, was playing. “I was never the strongest or the fastest,” Colwill says. “I was small for my age. I’d watch him and think: ‘He’s so good.’”
Colwill had injuries, the big one coming to a knee in the FA Youth Cup quarter-final against Millwall in February 2020. It was not until he went to Huddersfield in July 2021 that everything changed for him and he continues to draw on the times when it felt like a slog.
“The night before a big game I always like to think back and it eggs me on because of how much my parents did for me, driving all the way up from Southampton,” Colwill says. “They would never complain. My little brother would be in the car and he would never complain. Those things give me the motivation to give it my all and that bit of anger I need is a big thing for me. That bite really gets me going before games.
“Because I’m very laid-back, people might not think I have that in me, that I don’t care as much. But inside it’s a lot more than that. Every challenge, I’ve got to win, I’ve got to beat my opponent. That’s the kind of person I am.”
Colwill says it is “crazy” to play with Silva. He was a “bit nervous” at first, even to pass or receive from him but he has grown so quickly, building on his encouraging season at Brighton and an exciting summer in which he was called into the England squad for the first time for the Euro 2024 qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia. He then starred for the under-21s as they won the European Championship.
Brighton wanted to sign him permanently – they failed with a £30m bid – and his father was surely all over the transfer link to Liverpool. “Yeah, of course … you see it, you speak to him about it,” Colwill says. “But he knows about the pathway for my career, being at Chelsea. He understands everything.”
Colwill has been named in all three of Gareth Southgate’s England squads this season, although he had to pull out of the last one in November because of injury, and there was another boost when Pochettino gave him the captain’s armband for the Manchester United game at Old Trafford in December.
“I’m more confident in myself,” he says. “Last year, I was a lot different. I was keeping everything to myself. But this year, I’m stepping in a bit more and giving my opinion. I’ve seen myself as someone that can pass knowledge on, even though I’m so young. I’ve done a season in the Prem, played in the Champ, played in finals … I’ve done things.”
Now for Liverpool and Colwill goes back to the 2015 League Cup final which he attended as a fan – when Chelsea beat Tottenham 2-0 with the help of a goal from John Terry, whose No 26 shirt Colwill has taken over with the minimum of fuss. He is reminded that Pochettino was in charge of Spurs that day. “Was he? Up the Chels!” he says, with the air of a man who will definitely be bringing that up. Colwill is all-in for glory.
