Cole Palmer revealed the reasoning behind taking Chelsea’s quantity 10 shirt was to attempt to emulate idols Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney.
Palmer joined the Blues in 2023 from Manchester Metropolis and has develop into a standout participant for Chelsea, netting 40 objectives and offering 26 assists in all competitions.
The 23-year-old beforehand wore the quantity 20 shirt, however selected to vary his quantity beforehand worn by Chelsea greats Eden Hazard, Joe Cole and Willian.
Palmer marked his first look along with his new quantity in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Los Angeles FC of their first sport at this yr’s Membership World Cup.
“Messi, the massive one, Rooney and gamers like that. It’s simply an iconic quantity. I wore No. 10 all my life rising up and I similar to the quantity,” Palmer mentioned.
The England worldwide was talking forward of the Blues’ second sport on the Membership World Cup, the place they face Brazilian facet Flamengo at Lincoln Monetary Subject.
Their final matches towards Brazilian opposition had been within the previous format of the Membership World Cup, shedding the 2012 closing to Corinthians 1-0 and beating Palmeiras 2-1 within the 2021 closing.
Whereas unable to get on the scoresheet towards LAFC, Palmer performed a significant position in Enzo Fernandez’s purpose, slipping in debutant Liam Delap, who crossed for the Argentine to complete.
After the sport, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca revealed that he had advised Palmer to “take initiative” after the midfielder’s feedback after their Europa League convention triumph.
Palmer turned the primary participant to help two objectives in a serious European closing since Marcelo for Actual Madrid within the 2018 Champions League closing of their 4-1 win over Actual Betis final month.
He was additionally the primary to take action for an English membership since Juan Mata additionally did so for Chelsea within the 2013 Europa League showpiece towards Benfica.
However after the sport, Palmer claimed he was “sick of going backwards and sideways”, however he was fast to dismiss any disagreements with Maresca over the Blues’ type of play.
“We had a joke about it,” mentioned Palmer. “My feedback weren’t in the direction of the supervisor or something. It was only a private factor. I felt like within the sport, I used to be possibly being a bit protected.
“In order that’s the place the remark got here from. I needed to get the ball and check out one thing completely different than beforehand.
“Clearly you possibly can’t take the p*** and do like no matter you need and stuff, however I really feel like he [Maresca] nonetheless provides you slightly little bit of room to attempt to see what I can do.”
