From a refugee in Berlin to a Chelsea star - Antonio Rudiger

Antonio Rüdiger was born on 3rd March 1993 in Berlin, Germany. He grew up in Neukolln, an area in Berlin notorious for it's crimes.  His parents, Matthias and Lily, met in the Berlin after being forced to flee Sierra Leone in 1991 due to a violent civil war.

As a 9 year old, Antonio signed for his local club SV Tasmania Berlin. After 3 years with the club, he signed for Neukollner Sportfreunde, before moving on to Hertha Zehlendorf the very next year.

After some time at Hertha, a young Rudiger joined his half-brother Sahr Senesie at Borussia Dortmund. His brother was a part of the first team while Rudiger was at the Dortmund academy. Unfortunately for him, Dortmund deemed him not good enough and got rid of him after 2 years.

Being rejected by Dortmund really shook a young and undisciplined Rudiger, who was now determined to prove his doubters wrong. He joined Stuttgart and played for their B team before making his Bundesliga debut for the first team due to an injury crisis.

His work ethic, aggression and defensive abilities soon made him a vital cog in Stuttgart's first team. He spent about 4 years at the German club and by the end of his tenure there, his name was starting to spread among the officials at other European clubs.

In the summer of 2015, Italian giants AS Roma announced the signing of the young German defender from Stuttgart for a fee of 9 million £.

Rudiger impressed quickly and was often started at either centre-back or right-back

In his first year at Roma, he caught the eye of a certain Italian national team manager by the name of Antonio Conte, who had attended the game to look at his national team players.

Conte was impressed by the young German's aggression and defensive abilities.

Rudiger had a great first year at Roma and soon followed it with another season in 2016-17. Antonio was now a target for numerous big European clubs, with Manchester United and the then English Champions Chelsea being the most interested parties.

But the then Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte, who had an eye at Rudiger for 2 years now, brought him to Stamford Bridge for a fee of 34 million £. After a shaky start to his Chelsea career which included a disastrous performance against his old club Roma, Rudiger found his form.

He came good in the second half of the season, playing LCB in Conte's back three. He put in a masterful performance in the FA Cup Final against Manchester United to win a trophy in his first year at the club

However this season, under Maurizio Sarri, Rudiger has been brilliant every time he steps on the pitch. We are also seeing some of his abilities we didn't really know about, such as his distribution, which is very important in a Maurizio Sarri team.

We are starting to see how good Rudiger really is and he is staking a claim to be one the the best defenders in the Premier League. Here's to more years of Rudiger in Chelsea blue.

Future captain maybe?

Written by:

@theshreyasranjan (Instagram) / @KanteBall_ (Twitter)

Chelsworldwide's Football Critic