Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud has favourably compared Blues youngster Callum Hudson-Odoi to France’s 2018 World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe is widely regarded as the best young talent in World football. Despite being just 20-years-old, Mbappe has already won the World Cup with France, two Ligue 1 titles (with PSG and Monaco respectively) as well as one Coupe de France Cup with PSG.
The Frenchman has also been one of the best players across Europe’s top five Leagues so far this season. He has so far scored 27 goals from 31 appearances in all competitions this season for PSG. It is certainly exciting that Giroud has favourably compared Hudson-Odoi to Mbappe. This highlights that the Chelsea man has what it takes to become one of the best players in the World.
The Blues will have to however start giving Hudson-Odoi regular game-time sooner rather than later if they are to keep him at Stamford Bridge. His contract is due to expire during the summer of 2020. He also reportedly has big admirers in Germany and was a January target of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. To make matters worse for the Blues, the player was reportedly keen on the move as he was frustrated at his lack of game time under Maurizio Sarri this season.
Hudson-Odoi has so far made just four Premier League appearances this season so it is certainly easy to see why he may have been getting frustrated and wanted a move.
Giroud believes that Hudson-Odoi can reach the levels of his French national team team-mate Mbappe.
The veteran striker said, as quoted by The Daily Star: “Callum is one of the hopes of English football, he is only 18 years old. I saw him start a little over a year ago when I arrived in Chelsea, he was just 17 years old and he is a very talented player, a bit like Kylian (Mbappé). They were a bit of the same age when they started to blaze, now it’s true he needs playing time to progress.
“There is a lot of competition in his role, Eden (Hazard) who is our best player and who plays every game, Willian, Pedro … So there is a lot of competition. But I think that by training with these kind of players every day, he learns a lot and I think he will go very high, like Kylian.
“Can he be as good as Mbappé? He is very talented, now it’s up to him to continue working and to give himself the means. To picture it, I would say that he is a rough diamond that must be polished. Of course, Kylian is ahead, he has proved a lot more for the moment already at his age so it is not comparable, but for the English there are good reasons for hope about this young player.”
