Chelsea of England youngster, Jordan Aina has begun the race of chasing his older brother, Ola Aina’s record of appearances for the London club in the UEFA Youth League, megasportsarena.com reports.
The older Aina, who was initially on loan at AS Torino of Italy last season before turning it into a full contract in the summer, is Chelsea’s all-time record appearance holder in the Youth League, with 20 appearances altogether, which Jordan will now aim to surpass after getting his debut.
Dramatically, Jordan Aina’s debut in the UYL came on his 18th birthday, as he lined out with the two-time winners against Lille Metropole of France, but the team handled by Andrew Myers had already been relegated, such that the Nigerian-born left-back might have just been a filler for the tie at Cobham Training Centre.
Such it could have been, considering that the dark-skinned defender’s appearances have been few so far this season, with only two outings with The Blues from a possible 11 matches in the domestic, which is barely an improvement on his status for last term, when he did not play at all in what was the first year of his scholarship with Chelsea.
Back then, the younger Aina, who joined Chelsea at age eight and made his competitive debut in the English U18 Premier League against Norwich City in November 2018, he was not involved in any of the club’s nine matches, en route to being beaten by FC Porto of Portugal in the final.
However, having tallied a total of 14 appearances for The Blues’ youth team last term, Aina’s log betters that of his teammates and fellow-Nigerian-born quartet of goalkeepers Prince Adegoke and Kelechi Chibueze, fullback Derrick Abu and midfielder Faustino Anjorin.
