Whatever happened to Chelsea wonderkid, Gael Kakuta?
The academy setup at Chelsea has produced a fantastic array of talent throughout the years. The likes of John Terry, Graeme La Seux, Jimmy Greaves and so many more make up some of the best Chelsea academy players of all time – who all went on to have successful careers at the club.
But as of late, there have been a lot of fine young talent to have slipped through the cracks. The likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Declan Rice and Jamal Musiala are just a few names that come to mind when you think of world-class talent that has escaped the Blues’ clutches.
Then there are some, that just don’t make it big and never end up doing it. Such is the case, of Gael Kakuta.
What happened to Gael Kakuta?
Gael Kakuta. Now that’s a blast from the past Chelsea fans. The excitement was real when a young Frenchman made his way to Cobham in 2009, but it didn’t exactly turn out as planned.
He was drafted into the Chelsea youth ranks and immediately won the academy Player of The Year in his maiden season at the club.
It wasn’t a surprise for some. Chelsea’s scout at the time, Guy Hillion, was the man who got Chelsea to sign him after describing him as “the most gifted player of his generation”.
He also got praise from Chelsea legend, Michael Ballack, with the German midfielder saying to journalists, “Go see the French lad, he’s a star”, after playing in the Chelsea reserves whilst recovering from injury.
But with hindsight to our advantage, we know that Kakuta’s career was anything but successful at Stamford Bridge. He ended up only featuring six times for the Blues, so just what did happen to him?
The start of Kakuta’s demise
After making, and impressing, under Carlo Ancelotti on his Premier League and Champions League debuts Kakuta signed a new four-and-a-half-year contract with Chelsea in December 2010 – but wanted to go out on loan in order to obtain game time.
So the loans came. He chose Fulham as his first destination, and completely flopped. His quest for game time saw no return, playing just seven times for the Cottagers. Bolton was next, four games. Then Dijon, 14 games. Yikes. A waste of two more years.
Kakuta then endured some of his best years at Vitesse on loan, 34 games across two years was the most football he’d ever played, which led to Lazio then taking a punt on loan.
Back to failure in Italy, and this was the worst yet. He made his debut in the Europa League. and would only go on to make one more. He played a total of four minutes in the Serie A, coming on for Mirsolav Klose against Atalanta.
Now in 2014, one more loan followed, which you guessed it, failed. This is where Chelsea ultimately gave up.
Released by Chelsea
On the 19th of June 2015, following his release from Chelsea, Kakuta signed a four-year deal with Sevilla. After featuring just twice for the La Liga outfit in a season, it was pretty certain his career at big European sides was over. He then featured for the following:
As you can see, he found refuge once again at Ligue 2 Amiens, where he is still there to this day, and has done somewhat ok.
A strange career, that ultimately never ever took off. We wish Kakuta the best of luck with the rest of his days as a footballer, nevertheless.