Armando Broja had no idea who Tottenham were when the Premier League club contacted his parents about a possible transfer
The 21-year-old striker played for Chelsea between 2009 and 2020, but what many people don’t know is that he started his career at cross-town rivals London Spurs
After trials at Reading and Fulham, promising prospect Broja eventually joined Spurs at the age of six
After two years with the north London club, the Slough-born striker was signed by Chelsea to play for their academy and the rest is history
Broja signed his first professional contract at Stamford Bridge in February 2020, made an impact at Vitesse and Southampton on loan and is now vying for a place in the Chelsea first team
The young striker, who has just signed a new six-year contract with the Blues, has been linked with a move elsewhere after impressing under Ralph Hasenhuttl at St Mary’s last season, but it appears he has a solid future at Stamford Bridge
The 4,444 fans hope to see more of the academy’s products in the coming months
In fact, some have been calling for Broja to play for weeks following the following comments about Spurs’ initial approach as a young player
Take it off, Armando
“I was at Burnham Juniors, the club I first joined and I remember going to a tournament,” he told Players Tribune Football in a recent interview
“Actually the Tottenham scout came to check on another boy
I played well in that tournament, I was the top scorer and best player
“They approached my parents before I knew it, so when I came back, my parents said: ‘Tottenham has come to us
‘ I just thought: “Who is Tottenham
”
“Because I was quite young I only knew my Sunday Championship winning team [and Chelsea]
” Broja recently spoke out about rumors linking him with a move away from Stamford Bridge and from the looks of it, the Albanian international is intent on making an impact with his boyhood club
“You see the speculation, but my goal has always been to be here and focus on Chelsea,” the 21-year-old told Chelsea’s official website earlier this month
WHAT HAPPENED? The Albania international, who was born and raised in Slough, caught the eye of Spurs scouts with his goalscoring exploits as a youngster and was offered a chance to join their academy ranks. He had no idea what he was committing to at the time, with a promising frontman unsure of whether the north London outfit were Premier League heavyweights or Sunday League minnows.
WHAT THEY SAID: Broja has told the: “I remember going to a tournament. The Tottenham scout actually came to watch another boy. I happened to obviously play well that tournament and I got top goalscorer and I got best player at the tournament so they approached my mum and dad before I even knew about it.
“So, when I came back my mum and dad said, ‘Tottenham came over to us’ and I was thinking, ‘who’s Tottenham?’ Because I was quite young, I didn’t really know anything apart from my Sunday League team. So in my head it was just Burnham Juniors – that’s all I knew!”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Broja did link up with Tottenham, but did not last long there before a dream opportunity to join Chelsea was presented to him after one particularity inspired performance. He added: “We won 12-0 I think, and I scored nine. Straight after that, the two Chelsea guys came over and said ‘wow, we want you’. When they said that I didn’t think of anything else, I just wanted to join Chelsea. So eventually that obviously did happen and joined Chelsea end of Under-9s, start of Under-10s, so I’ve been there since then.”
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