Before Chelsea’s historic Champions League Final win against Bayern Munich I’m sure a lot of casual football fans were thinking who is Ryan Bertrand? The 22-year old left back was selected ahead of Florent Malouda to make his European debut on the biggest stage of them all on what was undoubtedly the biggest night of his career so far.
While he may not yet be a household name, Bertrand is certainly not an inexperienced player having already played over 150 competitive games as a professional. The youngster started his career at Gillingham before the Blues snapped him up in 2005. Since then the left back has had a number of loan spells at different Football League clubs which have more than showcased his potential.
Bertrand had two successful spells at Carrow Road with Norwich before a full season at Reading during the 2009-10 campaign. The following year Bertand had a six month loan spell at promotion chasing Nottingham Forest, during which he impressed both the fans and coaching staff. Forest were keen to bring the youngster to the City Ground on a permanent basis but Chelsea made it very clear that Bertrand had a future at Chelsea. He appears to be a readymade replacement for Ashley Cole not only at club level but international level too. Cole still has at least 2-3 years left at the top level but like Lampard and other aging Chelsea stars he will not play in every game during a congested season. Bertrand can step in and gain valuable experience in-between. Training alongside Ashley Cole will only help improve Bertrand further too.
Bertrand had a solid game in the final and stood up to some of the best players in Europe very well. Everyone will now know who he is and that will bring with it a new pressure for him to deal with. However, it is one he appears more than capable of dealing with though. The youngster has represented England through from Under 17’s up to the Under 21’s and his stock should now only continue to rise. So while you may not have heard of him before I think it is pretty safe to say that over the next few years Ryan Bertrand will become a name up that people are familiar with up and down the country.
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