Chelsea have signed Rangers' highly-rated 15-year-old Billy Gilmour,
but who is the Scottish youngster?
The Blues won the race to sign the midfielder, who is regarded
as one of the brightest young prospects in Scottish football,
and, according to Sky sources, will pay a £500,000 development fee
to Rangers with additional payments due on the attainment of specific career milestones.
Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha did his best to persuade Gilmour to
stay at Ibrox, holding talks with
his parents in a bid to convince him to snub the advances of Chelsea, but the youngster has
decided to take his chance with the English champions-elect.
So here's all you need to know about the 15-year-old wonderkid...
Time at Rangers
Born in Ayrshire on June 11, 2001, he joined Rangers as a young boy and quickly
progressed through the club's academy.
He made his debut for Rangers' U20 side in December and has risen to prominence
this season after a series of excellent displays for Graeme Murty's development side.
His performances saw him promoted to training with the first team and
he was also given a squad number.
Murty, who took temporary charge of the first team following
the departure of Mark Warburton,
was impressed and revealed Gilmour was even close to making Rangers' matchday squads
for their Scottish Cup ties against Morton and Hamilton.
Speaking at the time, Murty said: "Billy was really, really close to being in the squad.
He has played really well for the 20s.
"He has done really well for me when he has played for the 20s, so the next logical step
is the first-team, and it's just a question of as and when we can dip him in that's appropriate
to him. But, it was really close and a hard decision for us to make. But, I wanted him to
get on the pitch and experience the atmosphere."
Scotland youth international
Gilmour has also impressed at youth level for Scotland.
He was one of the standout performers for Scotland as they finished second to Republic
of Ireland in the 2016 Victory Shield.
Celtic youngster Karamoko Dembele grabbed most of the headlines after appearing for
the Scots during the tournament as a 13-year-old but it was Gilmour who caught the eye
with his performances in midfield, alerting a number of scouts at the top European clubs to his talents.
Earlier this year he captained Scotland's U16 side to glory in the four-way UEFA
Development Tournament against Croatia, Iceland and Austria and was named in Scotland's
provisional squad for the UEFA European U17 Championships.
What they said?
The list of clubs reportedly interested in Gilmour reads as a bit of a who's who of European football.
Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona
were all keeping tabs on the 15-year-old after his displays in last year's Victory Shield.
Rangers even admitted as much in their statement which revealed the midfielder was joining Chelsea.
The statement read: "That he was sought after by many Premiership clubs, and indeed a
number of the largest clubs in Europe, further demonstrates the quality of player now
being produced by the Academy."
Why Chelsea?
Rangers did all they could to try to keep Gilmour at Ibrox.
But reports suggest a visit to Chelsea's Cobham training ground convinced Gilmour to
move south and join Antonio Conte's Premier League champions-elect.
He will move to Stamford Bridge in the summer when he turns 16 and is expected to be
part of the Blues' academy, which just won the FA Youth Cup for the fourth year in a row.
Get to Know Chelsea new-boy Billy Gilmour
Reviewed by DLSBF
on
Thursday, May 11, 2017
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