Chelsea's Levi Colwill recounts first time he faced ‘idol’ Virgil van Dijk - ‘I might have told him to shut up’
Published 20/11/2024 at 17:03 GMT
Speaking to DJ Kenny Allstar on Kenny Allstar Firsts, Chelsea centre-back Levi Colwill retold the story of the first time he came up against an idol of his in Virgil van Dijk. The encounter took place in the opening matchday of the 2023/24 Premier League season as Chelsea welcomed Liverpool to Stamford Bridge, with Colwill aiming some harsh words at the Liverpool captain.
‘I told him to shut up!’ – Colwill’s regret after ‘disrespecting’ idol Van Dijk
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Chelsea’s Levi Colwill has recounted the first time he came up against one of his idols in Virgil van Dijk, and the frosty encounter the pair had in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
It occurred during a blockbuster clash between The Blues and The Reds on the opening matchday of the 2023/24 season, in which Axel Disasi’s goal for the hosts cancelled out Luis Diaz’s opener in a typically-dramatic contest between the two sides.
Colwill, 20 at the time, was making his first-team debut on the left-hand side of a back three, and was tasked with marking Van Dijk when the incident occurred.
Asked by DJ Kenny Allstar about the first time he played an idol as part of Kenny Allstar Firsts on TNT Sports, the centre-back said: “There’s a few, but I’d say last year when we played in the first game of the season.
“I played Virg for the first time and I remember marking him in the box. He said something to me and I think I might have told him to shut up accidentally.
“He looked at me like, ‘Who is this little boy?’ and I thought, ‘Ahh I’ve just disrespected him, but it is what it is, my bad’.
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“It was [crazy]. I was just looking at him thinking I want to be like that or better when I’m older if I could, but he’s a baller.”
Colwill - who is preparing to take on Leicester City this Saturday, live on TNT Sports and discovery+ - also discussed coming through the ranks with Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala.
The pair grew up in Southampton and played in the same Sunday League before forming a bond in the Chelsea youth set-up.
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“It’s a complicated one,” Colwill added. “I was playing for a Sunday League team in Southampton, I was playing the year above and something happened. I basically got kicked out because someone snitched to the league or something like that, one of the parents.
“So I was in a bit of a situation, so I just left that team and in weeks I was playing for another team. Jam [Musiala] was playing for City Central, the team I started off with.
“I don’t know how, our dads got in contact or something, but we ended up coming up on trials together here so we drove down this road together on our first day, both from Southampton and it was just a bond from there.
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“We found out our birthdays are on the same day, weird stuff, but it brought the bond closer and now he’s just doing his thing.”
Colwill climbed the age-group ranks at Stamford Bridge before spells on loan at Huddersfield Town and Brighton & Hove Albion meant he could enjoy first-team action before making the step-up into the senior team at Chelsea.
Musiala’s career went in a different direction, taking him to Germany, but Colwill admitted “there’s always love there” between the players who were born just hours apart.
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