Trevoh Chalobah is a man of faith — in god, but also in himself.On the day of the 2018 World Cup final in Moscow, he posted an image of the trophy on his X account along with the words “One day”, a clasped hands emoji, and the hashtag #believe.
One day 🙏🏿 #Believe pic.twitter.com/DSc9hmvPC2
— Trevoh Chalobah (@TrevohChalobah) July 15, 2018Chalobah had just turned 19, and the closest he had come to playing for Chelsea was sitting on the substitutes’ bench for an FA Cup final victory over Manchester United at Wembley two months earlier. He was weeks away from agreeing to spend the 2018-19 season at Ipswich Town, the first of three loan spells in three years before he was finally deemed ready to play for his boyhood club.The coach who made that judgement? Thomas Tuchel.Chalobah was a surprise starter in the 2021 UEFA Super Cup against Villarreal and made his Premier League debut against Crystal Palace three days later, marking the occasion with a goal and sharing an emotional celebration with a delighted Stamford Bridge.An emotional Trevoh Chalobah celebrates with team-mate Cesar Azpilicueta after scoring against Crystal Palace in 2021 (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)Tuchel was not generally known as a fearless backer of youth during his Chelsea tenure, but he saw something he liked in Chalobah: an aggressive, front-footed defender and sharp reader of danger, capable in the air and on the floor, polished as a passer and mobile enough to be comfortable operating with space behind him.Even as Chalobah’s playing time ebbed and flowed in a Chelsea squad loaded with more established defensive options, he started the League Cup and FA Cup finals in 2021-22 — a trend of amassing big-game experience that continued at Stamford Bridge beyond Tuchel, and culminated in him lining up alongside Levi Colwill in the Club World Cup final upset win over Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
