Although England bowed out of the ongoing FIFA U17 World Cup with a disastrous 4-0 trouncing by Austria, one of The Cubs whose name will forever be associated with this year’s Cadet Mundial is Chelsea’s Nigerian-born lad, Chizaram Ezenwata.
Sports247 reports that this follows the remarkable hat trick Ezenwata netted on the day England hit eight goals past Haiti and the youngster’s name is still listed among the leading scorers at Qatar 2025.
Read Also: ‘Why We Lost’ — Rivers United Coach Finidi George Explains Heavy Defeat to Pyramids in Cairo
While Austria moved ahead and will next play Italy in the semi-finals on Monday, England are already back home, but the name of Ezenwata (aka Chizzy) is still ringing a loud bell in The Middle East.
Apart from his hat trick against Haiti, the other prominent fact about ‘Chizzy’ is that he got all the goals as a second half substiture and he was not even fielded at all in England’s disastrous opening day loss to Venezuela.
He played just over half an hour in the trouncing of Haiti, and that gave him the nod to start in their last group match versus Egypt, but a dubious call for offside ruled out what could have been his only goal in that game.
Ezenwata’s inability to score in England’s 3-0 spanking of Egypt showed there is still a long way for him to go, but that does not take anything away from his status as a shining light in the English Premier League’s academy system.
Sports247 gathered further that there had been a buzz around Ezenwata from when he was with Tottenham Hotspur’s under-12 squad and then spent two years with Charlton Athletic, where his goalscoring and assists were prolific in the under-13s and under-14s.
That earned him a lot of interest from other clubs, but it was Chelsea who signed him after eight weeks of trials, after which Ezenwata became a regular starter for their under-18 squad last season, in which he got 12 goals from 24 games.
He made his debut for The Blues’ under-21s against Manchester City and, this season, he already has seven goals from eight appearances across the U18 League, UEFA Youth League and EFL Trophy tournament.
He is eligible to play for Nigeria (through his father), and Cameroon (through his mother) but chose to line out for England at junior level.
Ezenwata is a stocky, muscular attacker who uses his body well to hold off defenders, and, against Haiti, he showed that he also has an end-product to his game.
The Chelsea kid’s hat-trick versus Haiti rounded off an impressive 8-1 victory, and he again showed that he can be a focal point for England’s attack when called upon.
