Chelsea midfielder Romeo Lavia has played with and against some quality players in his young career.
At Chelsea, Romeo Lavia is currently lining up alongside the likes of Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo.
At Manchester City, the 21-year-old got to train with Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Bernardo Silva and some other world-class footballers.
He has now named one of his former City teammates as the toughest opponent he has ever come up against. Lavia has also tipped three Chelsea youngsters to go far in the game, having plenty of confidence in their ability.
Romeo Lavia names Kevin De Bruyne as toughest opponent
Since leaving City, Lavia has had to take on De Bruyne, and the Belgian has made it clear that he has not faced a more difficult opponent.
In an interview with Rising Ballers, he said: “Hardest I would probably say Kevin De Bruyne because I’ve been with him for a full year at City, in training, watching his moves etc. and then I moved to Southampton, played against City and I’m thinking, ‘OK, I know him’. I didn’t know him! So that was probably the toughest opponent I’ve played against.”
Lavia has not been able to help Chelsea of late because of injury. But when the Belgium international was fit and playing, he was really impressing.
Former Manchester United and Bayern Munich midfielder Owen Hargreaves praised Lavia in January, describing him as “one of the most press-resistant players” he has ever seen.
Jose Mourinho has explained Kevin De Bruyne departure
Lavia could have still been playing with De Bruyne, with his compatriot once being on Chelsea’s books.
Under Jose Mourinho, De Bruyne was loaned out and eventually sold. At the time, the Portuguese quite clearly preferred the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar and Andre Schurrle over him.
To most, it appeared that Mourinho did not really rate De Bruyne, though the Fenerbahce boss denies he pushed the 33-year-old out of Stamford Bridge.
Explaining De Bruyne’s departure on The Obi One Podcast, Mourinho said: “They [De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah] were just kids who couldn’t wait, and their careers say they were right [to leave], but it wasn’t down to me. Probably other guys will say I pushed them out, but not them.”
In the end, Chelsea’s loss proved to be City’s gain. When the Belgium international eventually returned to England after spending some time in Germany, he put his Chelsea nightmare behind him and won everything the game has to offer as a City player. Hopefully Lavia, a former City representative, can do the same in west London.
