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Victorien Angban: The best Chelsea superkid you've never heard of

Victorien Angban. Have you heard of him, Chelsea fans? Blues coaches are convinced - the lad's a potential world-beater.

And those who worked with Angban in Ivory Coast are happy to go a step further, rating his potential as greater than Manchester City midfield powerhouse Yaya Toure.

Ivory Coast youth training chief Aziz Ahmed Kone says of Angban: "He's still only small, but has the same profile as Yaya Toure, the same way of playing.

"We hope he will have the same career path as Yaya. I even think he has the potential to become stronger than him."

. Chelsea identified Angban's potential almost four years ago, swooping for the then 15 year-old after an outstanding U17 World Cup campaign in Mexico. Despite his tender years, Angban was on the fringes of Stade d'Abidjan's first team and chose Chelsea ahead of rival offers from Barcelona and Manchester City.

However, despite being with the club since 2011, Angban has never played a competitive game for Chelsea due to work permit problems.

This coming season will be a watershed. The 17 year-old midfielder has joined Belgium's Sint Truidense on a season-long loan and has already made an impact in preseason.

"STVV is the right move for me," Angban says.

"I'm really happy with STVV. I have now played three times (in preseason) and the level is high. Last year I was in the U19s at Chelsea. This is the right step for me. I know the competition will be tough.

"I'm confident everything will run smoothly."

And the transition has been smooth, despite Angban being prevented from joining the first weeks of STVV's preseason.

"I arrived late because some paperwork needed to be fixed up at Chelsea," he added. "But I'm now ready."

STVV coach Yannick Ferrera sees the teen, despite his lack of competitive experience, as an instant first-choice.

"In terms of fitness, he's been behind the others," said Ferrera. "But you instantly see his ability. He has a lot of potential."

Despite the work permit problems, Chelsea management never lost faith in Angban, convinced his talent was too rare to let slip away.

Indeed, Michael Emenalo, Chelsea's football director, thought so highly of the Ivorian that he convinced older brother Vincent Angban to join Chelsea two years ago. Vincent, an Ivory Coast Olympics international, has been a 'non-registered' player with Chelsea since 2013, taking part in friendly games for the reserves and U21s.

"I came to Chelsea through my brother," says Vincent, a goalkeeper.

"It's been a great experience. It's been important for me to rub shoulders with goalkeepers of the calibre of Petr Cech. We worked together all the time. I learned a lot from him."

Vincent's prime job was to stay close to Victorien and help him feel at home in Cobham as Chelsea and Emenalo worked a way through his work permit problems.

A year on from almost being ferried away by Marcelo Bielsa at Olympique Marseille, STVV now offer Angban the stage to prove Emenalo's faith was not misguided. There's still no doubts at Chelsea's end, with any thoughts from STVV of including a permanent option in the deal quickly shutdown.

Kone, who has experience in Europe with Toulouse, believes Angban, if Chelsea can organise the right career path for him, will be a future boss of the Blues' midfield.

"He is a player who can read the game, win the ball and launch attacks, " says the youth coach. "He can set the pace of a game, he knows when to step up his passing and when to hold back.

"Since I've known him, there's always been a lot of big clubs interested in him."

And with STVV opportunity ahead of him, Chelsea remain Angban's long-term future.

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Chris Beattie
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Chris Beattie

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