Chelsea extends Gilmour’s contract

• Posted on June 13, 2022June 13, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Chelsea Football Club has exercised an option to extend Billy Gilmour’s contract until 2024.

The midfielder, who spent this past season on loan at Norwich City, will remain at the Bridge for at least two more years. Gilmour has 22 Chelsea appearances to his name and turned 21 on Saturday.

Gilmour joined Chelsea in the summer of 2017 from Rangers in his native Scotland. After two successful years in our Academy, including trophies and a first professional contract, he became a permanent fixture in Frank Lampard’s squad during the 2019/20 campaign. He made his Blues debut in a home game against Sheffield United in August 2019, not long after his 18th birthday, and then signed a new four-year deal at Stamford Bridge.

Gilmour won successive man-of-the-match awards in our final two games before that season was suspended due to the pandemic, against Liverpool and Everton respectively. He remained a member of the squad during Project Restart, before an injury sustained at Crystal Palace brought his maiden season at senior level to an end. He had made 11 appearances and impressed with his game awareness, touch and weight of pass.

That injury delayed Gilmour’s return until December, when he came off the bench in a win at Sevilla. From then on, most of his minutes in 2020/21 arrived in the cup competitions, although he did start a crucial league game away to Manchester City in early May, highlighting Thomas Tuchel’s faith in the youngster.

He spent the 2021/22 campaign garnering further top-level experience with Norwich, playing 28 times for them in all competitions and accruing over 2000 minutes of football. Gilmour started four of their final five games.

He only made his senior Scotland debut last June but quickly established himself as a vital cog in Steve Clarke’s side. Gilmour turned in a super showing against England at Wembley in the delayed Euro 2020 tournament, and started each of Scotland’s seven World Cup qualifiers since then, featuring in six straight wins. Earlier this month he started and played 68 minutes for Scotland in a 3-1 loss to Ukraine in a World Cup play-off semi-final. 

-BBC