Lost Chelsea talent was a ‘combination of Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard and Ronaldinho’

If I bump into any player from my team back then, he’s one of the first things that comes up. ‘Hi, how are you? Do you remember Yann?’

That’s how Chelsea academy star Jordan Buck remembers Yann Gueho, a ‘combination of Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard and Ronaldinho’.

Chelsea FC

Gueho, who spent just two years at Cobham as a youth player, retired from football without ever making a professional appearance.

However, the 31-year-old’s unique and enthralling life story went viral in 2022 following a stunning piece with his family and ex-coaches.

Within it, several of his former teammates waxed lyrical over a French prospect once tipped to outshine Kylian Mbappe.

And during an interview with talkSPORT.com on his own academy journey, Buck became the latest to reminisce on Gueho’s talent.

Yann Gueho, a ‘combination of Bale, Hazard and Ronaldinho’

“I’ve seen a couple of articles on him. He’s been described as [Lionel] Messi. He’s been described as Mbappe,” Buck told talkSPORT.

“My personal experience, and this is someone who’s, he’s been one metre away from me, trained with him, played with him. I would describe him as a combination of Bale, Hazard and Ronaldinho.

“That’s how I’ve always described him. Bale because he has pace and power, and driving power on the ball to actually carry the ball forwards at speed.

“Hazard, because he had the technical dribbling, he had excellent technical dribbling capabilities, of a player like Hazard. Or a Mo Salah, just quick feet, the ball’s under control, and he just has the ability to glide past players at pace.

“And Ronaldinho, because he actually used skills. So people might describe Hazard or a Salah as a skilful player, but they don’t actually do tricks.”

“They’re just very good at dribbling,” Buck continued.

“He [Yann] actually used to do skills. So stepovers, flip-flaps, flicking the ball over people’s heads mid-game, those were actually part of his game to beat players 1v1.

“To just picture it, he used to just glide past players.

“He’d pick the ball up between the edge of the box and the closest side of the centre circle, pick the ball up about here and would end up by the edge of the box in seven, eight seconds, go past five or six players like it was water, knife through butter.

“It was insane to watch, absolutely insane to watch.

“A very special player. That’s how I would describe him, a combination of those three players.”

Gueho, who left Cobham at the age of 16, had stints at Lille and Nantes in France but never made a senior career appearance.

In addition to his talent, the retired winger suffered from a series of problems off the pitch that were blamed on a poor attitude.

He has served three separate prison sentences since leaving Stamford Bridge in 2011, and has also spent time in a psychiatric hospital.

Yet it wasn’t until 2016, when he was 22-years-old in which Gueho was diagnosed with bipolar disorder – a mental health condition that causes extreme mood shifts.

Devastatingly, the former member of France’s famous Clairefontaine academy was undergoing treatment for his disorder when he was left in intensive care following a knife attack last November.

Buck believes the steps taken within football over the past decade may have meant Gueho’s story may have panned out differently.

“I think just the way the world is now in general, I think there’s a lot more people out there,” he added on his former academy pal.

“Focus, awareness, support for employees and all that sort of stuff.
So I think if the way the world is today, it was back then, then he would have had a ton more help and support. That would have changed the trajectory of his journey.

“Even if it wasn’t just a case of a bit of counselling. He needed some meds to support his case. He would have got that in today’s world, definitely. And that would have enabled his talent to shine through.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that he would have been a star. There’s no doubt. And it’s not just me who says it.

“You’ve got actual other players themselves, like Nathaniel Chalobah, who was a superstar himself, saying that, yeah, ‘Yann, he would have gone on to be amazing.’

Getty

Getty

“I remember when I knew that he was an unbelievable player, because, well, there was a game on. I think it was when I was injured.

“Yann was playing, and Nate [Chalobah] played two or three years up anyway, so he wasn’t involved in that game. Nate walked over to me, and he watched the game for maybe two or three minutes, and he himself was stunned.

“I can hear it now. He said, ‘That guy [Gueho] is definitely playing Nationals next year. He’s definitely playing Nationals next year.’

“I could just tell the way he said it and the look on his face. I was thinking, you’re like Maradona to me, if you’re saying that about him, he’s everything that I thought he is then.”

Clips of those games involving Gueho are almost non-existent on the internet, in contrast to modern academy football, where Max Dowman went viral as a 14-year-old, while Liverpool fans could gleefully exchange footage of Rio Ngumoha after the Reds snapped him up from Cobham.

‘It’s just too easy for me’

“It’s different now in that clubs are way more proactive in terms of pushing youth players,” Buck continued to talkSPORT.

“Back then, it happened, but you had to be exceptional. I believe, as an under-15s, he [Gueho] trained with the first team a few times.

“That in itself, it was unheard of back then. But, again, relaying it back to his attitude, he walked off a couple of times training with the first team because something happened that he didn’t like.

“Adam Nditi told me that he nutmegged someone three times, and he thought he was so good, he was like, you know what, I’m just leaving this session. I’m just walking off. I’m just taking the mick out of you lot that much that I’m just going to walk off. It’s just too easy for me.

“That’s at 15, 16 years old. So you hear these kinds of stories, and they’re all true. It’s not people making things up. All of this stuff happened. Just goes to show what his character was like back then.

Gueho ‘completely different in changing room’

“So what was interesting is that in the changing room, he was a completely different character.

“He was actually really nice, and he and I got on really well. We bonded over music. We both liked grime, both liked JME.

“But the moment something happened that frustrated him, even the smallest bit, that was it. He’d lose his head.

“If he was in a happy mood and he was happy within himself and focused, let’s say, if he was focused, then yeah, the game’s won.

“Yann would often play up [an academy level]. Game days against Arsenal, which were the biggest fixtures in the country back then, both Nate [Chalobah] and Yann would get drafted back down into their own age groups to fight those wars.

“That’s also how you know how highly rated he was. It’s like, right, we’re bringing down our best soldiers to win.

“Regardless of whether Nate or Yann were with the youth team at that time or reserves or even first team, you bet your bottom dollar, Arsenal vs Chelsea, they’re both getting drafted back down.”

Shutterstock

Gueho’s younger brother, Loup-Diwan, has carved out a career in the pro game, having come through the ranks at Ligue 1 side Paris FC.

Chalobah, meanwhile, is currently plying his trade for already relegated Sheffield Wednesday this season, while his younger sibling, Trevoh, remains a Chelsea first-team regular.

Buck, who now works in IT, added: “If I bump into any player that I don’t speak to these days from my team back then, that’s one of the first things that comes up. Hi, how are you? Do you remember Yann?

“It’s like the third question because it is the talking point, and we just have to reminisce because it was that insane that we just have to talk about it.

“He’s the guy that people want to talk about because they really do cherish and value that memory of him.”

Most important to everyone is that Gueho is on the road to recovery himself, but one day, the platform is there for him to tell his story.

Buck said: “I’d like to get his view on how things were back then, because there are obviously two sides to every story.

“Just to hear his experience as a Chelsea Academy player and to understand what he remembers and hear his own stories, because he’d have a few. That’d be amazing.”