Thierno Ballo spent four years at Chelsea before being released in the summer of 2022. He moved to Austrian side Wolfsberger AC and has been with them since then.
The attacking midfielder joined the Premier League side from Viktoria Köln at the age of 16 with big dreams.
Transfermarkt have conducted a detailed interview with the 22-year-old, during he discussed his time in London, including how his move to Chelsea took shape.
Prior to joining the Blues, a few other clubs had shown interest in him and the list included Bayern Munich. However, he picked the west London club in the end and has explained what convinced him to join them over other options.
“There were a few clubs who wanted to sign me back then. Bayern Munich were very interested, I could also have gone to Spain or Italy, but England was an absolute dream of mine because my great role model Thierry Henry was an idol in the Premier League. Chelsea tried the hardest and gave my family and I a clear plan,” he said.
“For example, in the early days I was given a private teacher so that I could learn English more quickly. They generally attached great importance to ensuring the youth players enjoy a good school education. Whether it was during the lunch break or in our free time, we always made sure that we used the time to catch up on missed school material.”
Ballo represented Chelsea at U18, U19 and U21 level but wasn’t given a chance to represent their first team. The English club sent him out on loan to Rapid Wien during the 2021/22 season and he struggled to have a prominent role there.
Despite this, the Austrian insists that Chelsea’s attention to detail and the time spent in England has helped him develop his own game.
“When it comes to the individual development of talented players, Chelsea is the place to be. There was an extremely detailed profile with strengths and weaknesses for each player. The individual training sessions, which were offered several times a week, could easily last 1.5 hours. In addition, every – really, every – youth player received video analyses that were structured down to the smallest detail,” Ballo explained.
“Until I moved to London, I could only play in one position. In London, I learnt what variability means. I learnt how important it is to develop your own solutions and ideas within fractions of a second in the game. My time at Chelsea has really pushed me forward as an athlete.”
The midfielder has been enjoying regular playing time since moving to Wolfsberger AC. He’s scored 17 goals and registered seven assists from 57 games since the start of last season.
