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Chelsea loanee Callum Hudson-Odoi has opened up on his decision to leave the Blues on loan this summer. The highly-rated winger has joined Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen on a season-long loan.
The youngster has claimed that he decided to leave his boyhood club on loan in search of regular minutes. Hudson-Odoi has insisted that his long-term focus is to do well at Chelsea but it was important that he played more often.
The England international has also claimed that seeing other players doing well in the Bundesliga made him opt for a move to Bayer Leverkusen.
He said, as quoted by Chelsea News:
“My mindset was, ‘I have to get out of there.' Not in a rude way, as in I don’t like the club or I don’t want to be at the club, nothing like that. But I needed to play football somewhere new. Start afresh. Try the best I can wherever I am. And then go back to Chelsea at the end of the loan."
“You look at the players you’ve played with throughout the years, and you say to yourself, ‘They’ve done it in the league as well. They’re doing really well.' So I thought, I’ll come over here and give it a shot."
Callum Hudson Odoi saw his growth stalled at Chelsea
Hudson-Odoi came through Chelsea's youth ranks and made his first-team breakthrough at a very early age when Antonio Conte was still in charge at the club.
The winger's development continued under managers like Maurizio Sarri and Frank Lampard but he was limited to a bit-part role under Thomas Tuchel. Under the German, he struggled for minutes and never really seemed to fit into Tuchel's system.
It's understandable that Hudson-Odit wanted a loan move away from Stamford Bridge this time out. He has made 10 appearances on loan for Bayer Leverkusen this season but is yet to impress at the BayArena. The England international has made just one assist so far while failing to open his account for the season.
Meanwhile, the attacker is refusing to rule out committing his allegiance to Ghana, as per Tribal Football.
Although he has already played three times for England, new FIFA rules allow Hudson- Odoi to potentially switch his allegiance to the Black Stars. The winger earned all his England caps before turning 21. This means Ghana could still persuade him to play for them at the World Cup next month.
