€436.5m academy sales 

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Conor Gallagher is on the verge of becoming the latest Chelsea academy star to depart Stamford Bridge. The England international is heading to Atlético Madrid as he isn’t part of Enzo Maresca’s plans and Chelsea have decided to cash in on the midfielder with his contract to expire next summer. For years, Chelsea’s youth academy was comfortably the best in England and they won the prestigious FA Youth Cup five years in a row between 2013 and 2018. 

Numerous players progressed through Chelsea’s youth sides into the first-team including Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham. Frank Lampard handed debuts to several stars with Chelsea subjected to a transfer ban but the London club have become synonymous with selling homegrown talent across recent years. Since the start of the 2014/15 season, Chelsea have generated €436.5 million from selling 42 players that featured for their academy – including €101m this summer from the departures of Omari Hutchinson, Lewis Hall and Ian Maatsen. So using Transfermarkt data, we’ve analysed the most valuable XI from current players to have featured for Cheslea’s academy compared to Maresca’s current side. 

Most valuable Chelsea XI: Current squad vs academy players

The most valuable XI comprising players who’ve developed through Chelsea’s academy would be more valuable than their most valuable current XI. The Cobham academy side would have a combined market value of €620m, which is €75m more valuable than their highest current XI (€545m). As the graphic below, three current Chelsea players would feature in their most valuable academy XI in Reece James, Levi Colwill and Gallagher. 

The most valuable former academy star is Jamal Musiala with the Bayern Munich attacking midfielder spending eight years in Chelsea’s academy before leaving for Germany in 2019, aged 16. Declan Rice is the second most valuable at €120m, while Michael Olise – who joined Bayern Munich this summer – ranked third at €55m. Current club captain James and Colwill are the only players to feature in both teams as Gallagher narrowly misses out with Enzo Fernández, Moisés Caicedo and Christopher Nkunku forming the midfield trio.