Chelsea FC have already engaged themselves in January transfer activities and if a report from SPOX Austria is to be believed, we have completed their first winter signing by acquiring the signature of a certain 16-year-old Austrian forward, Thierno Ballo.
The day couldn’t have been perfect as the youngster signed for Chelsea on his 16th birthday, from FK Viktoria Köln of the German fourth division. Born in Conakry, Guinea in 2002, Ballo – an Austria U17 international – is also eligible to represent Cote d’Ivoire through his father. The youngster, a highly rated prodigy, started playing football at the tender age of 5 when he joined a local club Alpine Republic.
According to Spox, it was Ballo’s patron Peter Huemerlehner who spotted the youngster’s talent while he was playing on the streets of Linz, Austria.
“I saw Thierno for the first time on a street soccer pitch, he has an incredible basic dynamic and is incredibly flexible,” says the trained junior coach of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.
Following that, Huemerlehner brought Ballo to his club Chemie Linz and by the age of 11, the youngster striker made his move to Bayer Leverkusen.
Chelsea will this week finalise the signing of Austrian Under-17 international Thierno Ballo, who turns 16 today. He’ll join the Under-18 squad. #CFC pic.twitter.com/WqVv6D51tb
— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) January 2, 2018
Peter is one big influence in Ballo’s life as it was he who took the youngster and his mother from Guinea into his own family.
It was only last summer when Ballo moved to Viktoria Köln from Leverkusen, as it would have been harder for the youngster to break into the starting XI at Leverkusen.
Furthermore, according to Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Ballo had regularly flown to London to have his trials with Chelsea and he even scored 5 goals and 1 assist in a 6-1 friendly win against West Ham.
Furthermore, there’s also a news coming in that 21-year-old Kasey Palmer has been recalled from his loan tenure with Huddersfield Town after making just five appearances for the Terriers. What added further misery to his fate was an unfortunate hamstring injury he sustained in September which kept him out for two months. In a tweet, Palmer thanked Huddersfield Town and their fans for their support. But as things stand right now, it is safe to say another loan move for the 21-year-old could well be on the cards.
Thank You @htafcdotcom & All the best for the future #KP45 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/m0qUHf3haK
— #KP45 (@kaseypalmer45) January 2, 2018
That is not it for the Blues, as they have also decided to call Ugbo back from his loan tenure with Barnsley. The 19-year-old, who scored for Barnsley only in his second appearance, has only scored 2 goals in 18 appearances hence, has found first-team opportunities hard to come by.
📄 | Barnsley Football Club can confirm that Ike Ugbo has returned to @ChelseaFC from his loan spell at Oakwell.
We would like to wish Ike the best of luck with the rest of his career and thank him for his efforts.
➡️ https://t.co/aI5OkHrvb5 pic.twitter.com/BgHCsfcqgG
— BarnsleyFootballClub (@BarnsleyFC) January 3, 2018
