“There’s a hill in Clissold Park,” begins Milo O’Connor, Samuel Iling-Junior’s first junior coach. “I remember this six-year-old kid lolloping over this hill, wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt and a big smile.
“It was Sam and he just had a lovely nature. As soon as he started playing you thought, ‘Hello, he could be pretty good’.”
O’Connor coached the Aston Villa player, who is spending the season on loan at Bologna, here, at Clissold Park in north-east London, for junior side Clissold Rangers. Iling-Junior could face his parent club when they meet Bologna in the Champions League tonight.
GO DEEPER
Can Samuel Iling-Junior play against Aston Villa in the Champions League?
Clissold Park (Jacob Tanswell/The Athletic)
Clissold Park spans 56 acres, with paddling pools, parks, tennis courts, deer and goats. The area is economically mixed, with Clissold among the more affluent wards in the borough of Hackney. Residents make their own produce in the gardens. Its fields are secured with tree lines covering the perimeter and hosts a number of young football teams every week.
“We would train here on a Saturday,” O’Connor says. “You could turn up and play — just pay three quid. More scouts come to watch because of our reputation but there are no flash training kits or minibuses.
“There’s no finances — it’s done by volunteers. It’s all mums and dads who give their time like I did. But the standard is so high and everyone knows we’ve got an amazing track record for getting kids into the professional game. So those who turn up are the best in the area. When you’re in the middle of Islington, you are spoilt for choice because there is a deep talent pool.”
Clissold had developed a disproportionate number of talented young players who have integrated into academies. O’Connor coached two Clissold age groups, one for his eldest son and then his middle son, Dara, the team Iling-Junior marched down the hill to join.
“Out of the nine players we had in that squad, seven are in the professional game,” says O’Connor. “The star of the show was Samuel. He was just a wonderful kid. We had goalkeeper Remy Mitchell, who’s now at Swansea City, having initially gone to Arsenal. Caleb Dennis signed for West Ham, Seydil Toure to Charlton Athletic, Charlie Owens to Queens Park Rangers.
“Paige Bailey-Gayle, who was in my eldest son’s team, joined Arsenal. She’s just joined SC Sand in Germany from Newcastle United and went to the World Cup with Jamaica. There are others but Samuel stood out.”
The park is an eight-minute drive from Arsenal’s old Highbury Stadium and two miles from Iling-Junior’s house, behind the Market Road pitches where he, away from Clissold, would play cage football most evenings.
The 21-year-old describes himself as a “Highbury boy”, characterised by the astroturfed cages. His footballing traits are a by-product of where he was raised, developing a “street style” according to those who know him, with a quiet humbleness that kept his head down and worked hard.
The Market Road pitches and cages, backing onto where Iling-Junior grew up (Jacob Tanswell/The Athletic)
“I coached at Chelsea’s academy and knew of Sam,” says Saul Isaksson-Hurst, who now works with Iling-Junior as an individual coach. “My first age group was the under-10s and Sam and Jamal Musiala’s year. Four years ago, Sam approached me and said he wanted to do some work in the off-season.
“Him coming to me came off his own back. He’s got the desire to learn and be better; he understands marginal gains. He is very coachable, has no ego and just wants to work hard.”
“He was a pleasure,” adds O’Connor. “He had absolute focus. He didn’t turn up to training to mess around or chase butterflies. When you spoke, he listened and looked at you right in the eye.”
O’Connor recalls a rapid young winger who was often far more gifted than his peers.
“He had searing pace when going past defenders. Once, Samuel had two on him and somehow went past both. One of their defenders burst out laughing thinking, ‘What on earth was that? I can’t even describe what just happened’. Sam then thumped it in from 30 yards.”
There was a reluctant surprise when Chelsea signed him at the age of eight. The time it took between the scouting process and his signature was swift. Remarkably, some junior referees — who would be used as advisors by scouts owing to their knowledge of grassroots players — were unhappy they had not been told of Iling-Junior first.
“My friend’s dad, William Diaz, and a scout called Richard spotted me for Chelsea,” he said last year.
“Even after Samuel went to Chelsea, he would occasionally come back and join in training,” says a smiling O’Connor. “The kids were always delighted to see him and although he was at Chelsea, he never gave it the ‘big I am’. He would have fun.”
Chelsea’s training ground, Cobham, was 21 miles away — not inconsiderate by any stretch, but far greater when an eight-year-old and his father based in north London were required to go through the nub of the capital at rush hour times.
Together, they would travel by bus from Highbury and Islington station before being dropped off at Vauxhall and then, finally, catching the train to Cobham. Training would begin at 5.15pm and finish two and a half hours later. This would be repeated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. At best, Iling-Junior would aim to be asleep before midnight.
His dad would drive him to weekend training and games, despite working nightshifts as a computer engineer, and slept in the car while Iling-Junior played. In the seven years between joining Clissold Rangers and moving into digs at age 14, Iling-Junior recognised the level of sacrifice made by his father, who had acted as his agent in the past.
“His dad would always bring him to training,” says O’Connor. “His dad was a lovely character but a quiet guy. His dad didn’t do any shouting from the side or contradict the coaches.”
Iling-Junior went to sixth form less than three miles from those Clissold Park pitches. Staff turnover at St Aloysius’ College, Highgate, has meant only one staff member remains since his time there: Lorna, the office secretary. She recalls a tall, permanently smiling boy, who wanted to be known as ‘B Samuel’, as he was to friends and family.
Even if Iling-Junior’s pace and one-v-one ability enthralled coaches and resigned defenders to comic tragedy humour, he was trialled in central defence at Chelsea. Being “always the tallest”, he says, meant such an experiment was inevitable.
As his penchant for long-range strikes proliferated, he moved further upfield, from left-back to central midfield before settling as a left-winger or archetypal No 10. His technique and flow in possession made coaches compelled to move Iling-Junior into more impactful areas.
“Sam is lucky because he has that street player technique and movements,” says Isaksson-Hurst, who coached Iling-Junior, Chelsea’s Noni Madueke and Folarin Balogun, the USMNT and former Arsenal striker, this summer.
“Traditionally with a lot of northern or western European players, they’re very wooden and don’t have the flexibility in the hips — that’s why you’ve got to do a lot of ball work with them. Because he’s grown up with street player movements on the ball, Sam has more flexibility.
Isaksson-Hurst sits down with The Athletic (Jacob Tanswell/The Athletic)
“Intangibly, a street player has ball mastery with a purpose, making Sam perfect to base his game around one-v-ones. Like in basketball, certain players have a bravado that when they get the ball, they have the personality to stay on the ball.”
At 16, Iling-Junior was promoted into Chelsea’s under-19s. He was in the same age group as Levi Colwill (Musiala would step up to play with them both) and developed within a system that comprised a back three, a formation that would later serve him well at Juventus. Although he remained among their most precocious players, Iling-Junior saw a diminishing pathway into the first team.
This prompted a career reconsideration, rejecting a scholarship at Chelsea and opting to move to Italy. Iling-Junior’s parents are Congolese and would speak Lingala to him, so the dynamics of learning another language were not as imposing. He attended a college annexed to Juventus’ training ground, learned how to cook regional dishes and took intensive Italian-language courses. His loan move to Bologna, 330 kilometres east of Turin, will not come as a cultural shock.
“It’s not hard to adapt, it’s quite simple, classy,” the 21-year-old told The Athletic’s James Horncastle in 2023. “The key word for it is ‘class’. They are very good in the way they dress and the way you approach them — if you have manners, they’ll have manners.”
“(Juve manager) Massimiliano Allegri would play him at left wing-back,” says Isaksson-Hurst. “In possession, he would either be in the left pocket or higher up (see image below). That’s what’s good about Sam: in the younger England groups, he could play anywhere. He played left back, left-wing or in the middle as a No 4, No 8 or No 10.”
The England youth international started putting meaningful goalscoring numbers for Juventus’ ‘Next Gen’ side in Serie C. In the 2021-22 campaign, he scored 10 goals in 26 appearances in Italy’s under-19s league, with his finishing ability more refined than his rawness suggested.
“He can play as an inverted winger,” says Isaksson-Hurst. “But Sam realises that if you look at the England team now and the English game, there are not enough quality left-backs around, so him playing left-back, left-winger or on the right will allow him to get to the highest level.
“Me and Sam were speaking recently and I said to him, ‘You’ve got so much potential going forward, do you want to be a left-back?’. He said he just wanted to play. He understands the footballing landscape and there are very few good-quality left-backs. In a couple of years, he could be the No 1 left-back for England. He has always had the tactical flexibility to play in several positions in one game.”
Such schooling became pertinent when stepping up to Juventus’ first team in May 2022. Iling-Junior became defensively sounder — with a greater emphasis on tactical discipline in Italy — when playing at wing-back.
Despite his playing data remaining relatively small — Iling-Junior started six games for Juventus’ first team last season — he has built a bank of varying experiences, playing in the Champions League and winning the 2022 European Under-19 Championship with England.
“I remember sitting down one evening watching Juventus and saying, ‘Sam has just replaced Cristiano Ronaldo’,” laughs O’Connor. “That was nuts. He’s gone from training with us in a park to training with Ronaldo.”
Isaksson-Hurst puts on a session for Iling-Junior
“I do positional work,” says Isaksson-Hurst. “For Sam, we will work in the left wing-back/left area of the pitch, focused on duel capabilities with end product, such as crosses, shots and forward passes.
“We talk about in and out movements — if you’re playing against a right-back, they want to send you on the outside. Defenders are coached to dictate play, so we spin it on the head. Instead of going down the line and going away from pressure, I’ve asked Sam to drive inside initially (see below) and unbalance the defender. We discuss how to be more efficient, use fewer touches and take players out of the game.”
“Sam is physical and powerful, so he can get beyond players. But to solve the problem of a defender being in front of him, especially higher up the pitch as he drifts inside, we have studied his first touch, whether to set and move or spin behind.”
Before moving to Bologna on loan, the plan had been for Iling-Junior and Isaksson-Hurst to increase the number of individual sessions now he was back home in England. The pair will reunite following Bologna’s game at Villa Park, ironically Iling-Junior’s first match at the stadium.
Douglas Luiz headed one way for €50million (£42m; $55m) and Juventus recouped €22m for Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea, who joined Villa for €11m each and is spending the season on loan with Valencia in Spain. Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris is part of Exor, the listed holding company of the Agnelli family, who own Juventus. Exor’s leaders describe themselves as aiming to “share ideas for potential new business opportunities”. This, clearly, was one idea that was first bounced around before sticking.
Villa and Juventus had discussed separate player transactions, including Weston McKennie, but there was a sense that Iling-Junior’s camp wanted a move as they had been expressing the desire for consistent minutes. Villa were confident the wide player would be an asset, but not immediately. They have plenty of options down the left flank, so he would not be afforded the required playing time. Instead, he needed another loan either allowing him to integrate fully next season or be sold for a profit later. He made an instant impression by scoring on his debut against Como in the 91st minute to secure a 2-2 draw.
2-1 down, 91st minute. Step up, Samuel Iling-Junior 🙂↕️#ComoBologna pic.twitter.com/nZAYv29tQc
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) September 15, 2024
“He’s relatively quiet but has a good sense of humour,” says Isaksson-Hurst. “We WhatsApp and after games, I give a few pointers. It’s crucial he plays because he’s very talented. The move to Villa was extremely important because it places an onus to develop, but especially now he’s out on loan back in Italy. Over the next two to three years, he will be looking to get into the England squad.”
“I’m not just saying that as a footballer, but as a boy and as a character, he was lovely,” O’Connor says. “He’s truly someone we can be proud of.”
(Top photo: Chris Ricco/Getty Images)
