Chelsea have announced the signing signing of Dujuan 'Whisper' Richards.
The Blues confirmed that he will join the club at the start of next season after he turns 18, having fought off interest from Aston Villa and Newcastle with the player even having a two-week trial at the latter in February.
According to Craig Butler, who runs the Phoenix FC football academy in January, Richards signed a pre-contract agreement with the Blues earlier this year. Butler, the adoptive father of Aston Villa and Jamaica star Leon Bailey, took to social media platform Instagram to announce the deal with Chelsea.
Richards has been with Phoenix for the past five years and recently got a call-up to the Jamaica senior team for games against Trinidad and Tobago in March. His first start came in the second clash with Trinidad and Tobago and he then completed 90 minutes against Qatar earlier this month.
Following those appearances, Richards has now been selected by Jamaica for the upcoming Gold Cup.
The teenager had even attended a Newcastle game, the match with West Ham United at the start of February, but but pen-to-paper on an agreement with Chelsea as initially confirmed by Butler. "We are grateful to Chelsea Football Club and look forward to the continued relationship and partnership with our academy as we prepare Whisper for the Premier League," Butler wrote on Instagram.
"On a personal note, Chelsea FC was my boyhood dream club and I'm so pleased to have one of my players built in the furnaces of the Phoenix at Stamford Bridge.
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"Thank you to the staff at Chelsea, especially Joe Shields for believing me two years ago when I told him that I was building the top talent, Dujuan "Whisper" Richards."
Richards made waves in Jamaica when he bagged 31 goals and registered 19 assists for Phoenix last season. He is familiar with his new home, too, having played against Aston Villa, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace in academy games while he has also been on the books of Brooke House College in Leicestershire.
Richards, from Port Royal in southeastern Jamaica and who has an English grandmother, recently declined a lucrative approach from a Middle Eastern club according to ChronicleLive.
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