Chelsea teenager Callum Hudson-Odoi in Bayern Munich transfer talks with Antonio Rudiger

Arms race: Hudson-Odoi bursts past Christian Eriksen at Wembley
PA
Simon Johnson9 January 2019

Antonio Rudiger has revealed team-mate Callum Hudson-Odoi has asked for his advice about a move to Germany as Chelsea face a battle to hold on to the teenager.

Hudson-Odoi, who impressed on his second consecutive start for the club in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg defeat by Tottenham last night, is wanted by Bayern Munich.

The Bundesliga club lodged a fourth bid yesterday worth £31.4million, not including add-ons. Reports Chelsea have accepted it are premature but they are concerned the 18-year-old plans to leave.

Rudiger is a Germany international who knows the Bundesliga well, having begun his career at Stuttgart, and the 25-year-old defender wants Hudson-Odoi to remain at Stamford Bridge.

He said: “He asked me about Germany. It was a general question from him. He is still young, I can advise him, but at the end of the day he decides about his future.

“You can see it from both sides. He can develop here but he can develop in Germany as well — and don’t forget Bayern Munich are also a big club.

“For his future, I wish him all the best but I just wish he stays with us.”

Bayern’s director of football, Hasan Salihamidzic, this morning confirmed the club’s interest in Hudson-Odoi.

“He is an interesting player,” said ­Salihamidzic. “He is young and with pace. He can adapt to our style of play and we are following him.”

Chelsea offered Hudson-Odoi a five-year contract last summer but are still trying to convince him to sign it.

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Chelsea | 08/01/2019

1/32

Hudson-Odoi made it clear during pre-season he would wait to see how much playing time he was given before agreeing terms.

Last night, he made just his fifth start of the campaign and his appearance might have come too late to persuade him to ignore Bayern’s approach.

Hudson-Odoi has just 18 months left on his deal and the Blues will be under pressure to sell if he does not sign an extension.

Rudiger believes Hudson-Odoi is an asset that Chelsea will regret losing and added: “Of all the young players I have seen at Chelsea, he is the shooting star. He has all the tools to become a big player but he has to work a lot.

“He is good, everyone knows that, everyone can see that. But he is still 18 and at that age you can’t look too far [ahead]. People have to give him time. As a young player it’s very important to play. Where? I hope it will be here.

Hudson-Odoi started for Chelsea against Spurs on Tuesday.
Getty Images

“How did he do against Spurs? For him everything is going very well. He is a young lad and has less pressure, so he can show what he can do. He did very well and caused problems.”

Chelsea dominated for long periods against Mauricio Pochettino’s side but they lost out to a penalty from Harry Kane in the first half.

The visitors went close to securing a draw to take back to Stamford Bridge for the second leg through N’Golo Kante and

Hudson-Odoi, both of whom had efforts which came back off the post.

While it was the club’s third straight defeat against their London rivals, it was a more encouraging ­display than the 3-1 League reverse in November.

Rudiger still has high hopes of ­reaching the final, saying: “I’m ­honestly happy with our performance.

“The last time we were here, we went 1-0 down and then let in the second

and third one. This time we showed ­maturity and we were in the game.

“We can cause any team problems. It will be a tough match for sure because they have one guy [Kane] who likes to score.

“It is hard to keep him quiet. Okay, one time he scored but we kept him in good hands.

“What we have to do better is find that clear chance. Everything was nice shots from afar, we didn’t make it too complicated for the keeper.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in