Richard Nartey: 'You Learn How Fortunate You Are Growing up at Chelsea'

 Burton’s Richard Nartey challenges Jonson Clarke-Harris of Bristol Rovers on his debut for Albion. Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/JMP/Shutterstock
Burton’s Richard Nartey challenges Jonson Clarke-Harris of Bristol Rovers on his debut for Albion. Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/JMP/Shutterstock
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Richard Nartey: 'You Learn How Fortunate You Are Growing up at Chelsea'

 Burton’s Richard Nartey challenges Jonson Clarke-Harris of Bristol Rovers on his debut for Albion. Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/JMP/Shutterstock
Burton’s Richard Nartey challenges Jonson Clarke-Harris of Bristol Rovers on his debut for Albion. Photograph: Robbie Stephenson/JMP/Shutterstock

“The first thing that happened was a ball got kicked in the air at me and I got an elbow in the face,” Richard Nartey says as he recalls his gritty introduction to League One after going on loan to Burton Albion. The centre-back, who has been at Chelsea since he was nine, knew it was time to sink or swim. He was making his professional debut after coming off the bench against Bristol Rovers in August and it was a rude awakening.

“I was a bit dazed,” Nartey says. “It was my wake-up call. I was telling myself: ‘You’ve got to give it back. You can’t act like this young person from Chelsea, otherwise people will pick on you.’ I had to show I could do all the physical stuff and let my technical side show as well.”

He knuckled down, helping Burton to a 2-0 victory. He enjoyed his time at the Pirelli Stadium and is disappointed that the League One season is over prematurely. He has been back at his family home in Wimbledon during lockdown and, with Chelsea deciding not to renew his contract when it expires on 30 June, he is focusing on finding a new club.

The 21-year-old is used to being challenged. Nartey placed a high value on his education, even though it slowed his development at Chelsea. He attended St Paul’s, a private school in south-west London, until he finished his GCSEs when he was 16. “I stayed longer than most at Chelsea before going on loan because I started full-time a couple of years later,” he says. “Usually you do day release at 13. You still go to school and take a day off to train. At 14, 15, 16 you do full-time football. I didn’t train for two and a bit years full-time.

“Even if you were good enough you can never tell what’s going to happen at that age. With my parents giving me all the help I needed I thought it better to do my GCSEs. Once you go full-time it switches to being more focused on football. It ended up with me going to school for the five days and then I’d have to just turn up on the day of the game. Then I’d go back to school while everyone else went back to training for the week.”

There was more to come for Nartey, who spent three years studying for maths and French A-levels after joining Chelsea full-time at 16. He is grateful to the club for paying for his lessons and finding him quiet spaces to work, but he also had to catch up on his teammates. Nartey had fallen behind at an academy that produced Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James.

“The goalkeeper Nathan Baxter did a similar thing to me,” he says. “But you do feel on your own. I didn’t know many in my situation. I was surrounded by players who were not only the best but had been doing it for two years, every day. I came in as a skinny schoolkid.

“That was my first ever pre-season. I’d never trained every day before. The first time I tried it I cramped up within 40 minutes. I took that session as a break and trained every other day. I told myself I had to be patient. I did two training sessions in a row for the first time and in my mind that was a great achievement. Everyone else was celebrating in a jokey way. But it was big for me.”

Nartey is not surprised that Abraham, Mount, Tomori, Hudson-Odoi and James have broken into the first team. The academy coaches improved their technique but also instilled a strong work ethic. Nartey had a solid grounding thanks to Joe Edwards, who joined the first-team coaching staff at the start of the season, and Jody Morris, Frank Lampard’s No 2.

“Joe has been there since I was very young,” Nartey says. “He’s been extremely helpful, especially as you’re getting into the 23s. He was crucial in reminding us you’re going to lose games when you go out, you’re going to find yourself not playing sometimes.

“Jody was my youth-team coach. His success speaks for itself. He would join in the training session sometimes and would usually be the best player technically. You would see what the top level looks like, even though he had retired.”

Nartey had more to learn. He had featured against lower-league sides when Chelsea reached the semi-finals of the Checkatrade Trophy in 2018, but he needed a tougher environment than academy football. Burton beckoned. “You learn how fortunate you are growing up at Chelsea,” he says. “You go on loan and see there are bonuses for winning games and how much that means to someone.”

Nigel Clough, who quit as Burton’s manager to help the club cope with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, gave Nartey 28 appearances. Jake Buxton, the experienced centre-back who has stepped in as player-manager, has been another big influence.

Tore André Flo, who looks after Chelsea’s loan players, has also helped mentor him. “He’s been extremely helpful,” Nartey says. “I’d play a game and the first message I’d have when I’d get back was: ‘I saw you played the whole game, how did you find it?’ He’s come up to Burton a few times.

“He played up front and he was saying what he didn’t like. Strikers like time on the ball and he said the toughest ones were when people got tight and didn’t give you the chance to turn.”

The next step is approaching. “I always wanted to be involved in financial things,” Nartey says. “My dad works at Barclays so I’ve been getting advice from him. I’ve started a financial trading course during lockdown. Hopefully it stays as a back-up plan, but even when I retire I’ll need to do something. It will never hurt to have the two A-levels.”

The Guardian Sport



Mohamed Salah: Liverpool’s Egyptian King

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
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Mohamed Salah: Liverpool’s Egyptian King

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)

A living legend in Liverpool, Mohamed Salah has two more years to burnish his astonishing legacy at Anfield after extending his contract on Friday.

In the midst of constant speculation over his future, the 32-year-old has produced one of the great all-time individual seasons to take the Reds to the brink of the Premier League title.

The Egyptian has scored 27 goals and provided 17 assists in 31 league appearances to help Arne Slot's men open up an 11-point lead for with seven games to go.

A third player of the year award from both his fellow players and football writers is a formality as Salah's latest prolific season has propelled him into the debate over who is the greatest player of the Premier League era.

Salah's 184 goals in the English topflight is the joint fifth highest in Premier League history, while he also now sits in the top 10 for assists.

He did not arrive at Anfield as a superstar destined for greatness when Liverpool paid Roma £34 million ($44 million) for his services in 2017.

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah lifts the trophy after winning the Champions League final match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, on June 2, 2019. (AP)

As a pacy winger with promise, Salah had hitherto struggled for consistency and end product with a string of European clubs since making the move from his homeland to Swiss side Basel as a 19-year-old.

Salah failed to make the grade in his first spell in the Premier League at Chelsea as the Blues discarded him after just 19 games in what proved to be a monumental mistake.

A move to Italy, firstly on loan at Fiorentina, before heading to Roma on a permanent basis restored Salah's reputation to tempt Liverpool into taking a punt on his potential, even if he was not Jurgen Klopp's first choice.

The German manager had wanted his compatriot Julian Brandt instead, but was convinced by the club's recruitment team and together they rebuilt the Reds into a force of English and European football once more.

- Fitness fanatic -

Klopp did not take long to be convinced as Salah scored 44 times in a stunning debut season, leading Liverpool to the Champions League final and a top-four Premier League finish.

He was quickly christened "The Egyptian King" on Merseyside and soon the trophies began to flow like his goals.

Salah left the 2018 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in tears after being forced off by a shoulder injury in the first half which also limited the impact he could make for his country at the World Cup finals in Russia a few weeks later.

One year on, he scored in the final as Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 to deliver the first silverware of the Klopp era.

The club's first Premier League title for 30 years followed in the coronavirus-disrupted 2019/2020 season.

The FA Cup, two League Cups and another run to the Champions League final in 2022 underlined Liverpool's return to serial trophy contenders under Klopp -- and with it Salah's heightened status within the game and further afield.

He was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2019 in which he was described as an "iconic figure for Egyptians, Scousers and Muslims the world over."

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah controls the ball during the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, on Dec. 16, 2021. (AP)

Salah has used that profile to call for greater gender equality in the Arab world and to appeal for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza following an Israeli air bombardment last year.

However, he has mostly done his talking on the field.

A fitness fanatic, Salah regularly posts images of his workouts on social media which he credits for allowing him to remain among the world's best despite his advancing age.

Klopp's emotional departure last year was seen by many as the end of an era for this Liverpool side.

Instead, in the first season under Dutch coach Slot, Salah has been the catalyst for an unexpected cruise towards the Premier League title.

"It's not a coincidence because the first day I arrived over here, we did a fitness test and he was our fittest player," said Slot.

"So it tells you what his plans were for the season. It also tells you a player that has so many great seasons at a club like this comes back like that tells you a lot about his personality."