Trevoh Chalobah ended his near 20-year association with Chelsea by joining Como 1907 this summer, but his journey through his boyhood club taught him one thing above all - resilience. You only need to look at the England defender's career to see how the 27-year-old managed to fulfill his dream of playing for Chelsea while also overcoming plenty of setbacks. He went from crying in the car because he did not feel good enough while playing alongside Mason Mount and Declan Rice during his childhood at the Cobham academy, to being left out of first-team training as a member of the so-called "bomb squad" under former boss Enzo Maresca in 2024, before being made available for transfer and sent out on loan.
Each time, Chalobah bounced back to become a regular starter for Chelsea. He was recalled from a loan spell at Crystal Palace in January 2025 and ultimately made 151 appearances for the Blues before completing a £31m move to Italy to join Serie A side Como under manager Cesc Fabregas last week. Chalobah was brought in to provide leadership and demonstrate what he believes is his footballing superpower - being "very, very resilient".
"That's one of my attributes and one of my skills that I have, bouncing back from things and not allowing anything to get to me," Chalobah reflects from Como's pre-season camp in Teddington in south west London. "Not just in football, in life, things are going to happen which are sometimes out of your hands and out of your control." It was the change in ownership in 2022 from Roman Abramovich to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital which saw almost every player sold and new ones signed in a chaotic first two years. There is no sense of bitterness or regret as Chalobah achieved his highest total of appearances for Chelsea in a single season last term with 47 before leaving his boyhood club.
"I always wanted to play for Chelsea no matter what the circumstances were, I always believed that I could do it," Chalobah continued. "I'm grateful for every setback, every challenge, every trophy I've won. I've won a few things there and it's a club where I've improved and I've learned a lot.
"Stepping in as a young boy and then leaving as a man, I'm really happy with my career there. I will always keep the blue flag flying. I'll be supporting them, I'll be watching them this season and they'll always be in my heart." This is not Chalobah's first spell with a club overseas, having spent part of the 2020-21 campaign on loan with Lorient in the French top flight.
It was there that he emulated his older brother Nathaniel, who played for Napoli, by taking the less-trodden path of moving to Europe as an English player, a route that has since become more commonplace. The younger Chalobah says it was "not a coincidence" that Tuchel, whom he had faced while at Lorient after the German joined Paris St-Germain, picked him out and gave him his Chelsea debut. Five years later, Tuchel promised him that if a defender dropped out of England's World Cup squad, Chalobah would be first in line for a call-up.
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