Chelsea wonderkid on the brink of history shows true colours before Newcastle

Chelsea teenager Shumaira Mheuka appeared to revel in his first outing with the senior men's team after he was named on the bench for Thursday's Conference League thrashing of Panathinaikos. It came on the same day that Mheuka's professional contract with the club was announced.

Mheuka, more commonly known as Shim, only turned 17 on Sunday, October 20, and he would have become the joint-seventh youngest player to represent Chelsea, had he made it off their bench in Athens. However, despite a healthy lead and the chance to give out minutes, Mheuka had to make do with an evening as a substitute.

Given his rapid rise through the academy system at Cobham, this is nothing to be sniffed at. Mheuka's Under-21 teammate, Josh Acheampong, for example, is currently frozen out of all match action due to a contract dispute, football.london understands.

Tyrique George, who started to train with the first-team under Mauricio Pochettino at the end of last season, did get a run-out and impressed with a sharp cameo. Mheuka is considerably younger than both of them, though, and has plenty of opportunities ahead of him.

Since his arrival at the club in 2022, Mheuka has regularly been playing above his age-level, scoring 12 times in 20 games for the Under-18 side in the past year despite being 16. Last week, he was also handed an England Under-19 debut, scoring in two separate matches, even though he effectively skipped the Under-18 squad.

Having trained in the days prior to playing Panathinaikos, Mheuka then travelled with Enzo Maresca's group for the Conference League group phase match. When the Blues went into a 4-0 lead shortly into the second half it looked as though Mheuka may have had the chance to make history, but Maresca instead turned to squad options Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei, who are both short of competitive minutes.

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Regardless, Mheuka seems to have enjoyed the trip. Posting to his Instagram story after the match, he uploaded a set of images from before and after training. Adding a 'pink heart' emoji - the colour of Chelsea's European training gear and styled closely to their third kit - Mheuka picked out some of his standout moments caught on camera.

As stars such as Cole Palmer, Reece James, Nicolas Jackson, and Romeo Lavia return into the fold, Mheuka is now likely to return to Premier League 2 and Under-21 duties until the next Conference League match in two weeks.

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