I was handed a huge contract by Chelsea - but I had to get out of there in the end

Callum Hudson-Odoi broke through the youth ranks at Chelsea before penning a new five-year contract with the club in September 2019 but left his boyhood club to join Nottingham Forest last year

Despite securing a lucrative contract with Chelsea at the tender age of 19, Callum Hudson-Odoi recognised that he needed to part ways with his dream club to rekindle his football career.

The ex-England international joined Chelsea, the club he supported as a child, at just seven years old in 2007 and made his first-team debut under Antonio Conte in 2018, 11 years later.

Hudson-Odoi's performances were so impressive that they caught the attention of Bayern Munich. The German giants made several offers for the young winger after he submitted a transfer request in January 2019.

After protracted contract talks with Chelsea, Hudson-Odoi put pen to paper on a new five-year deal the following season, reportedly worth up to £180,000 per week.

However, before his new contract was finalised, the winger suffered a severe Achilles injury that sidelined him for six months. He later confessed how challenging it was to regain his pre-injury speed and sharpness, and struggled to secure a regular spot in the Chelsea team in the subsequent years he spent at Stamford Bridge, reports the Mirror.

Choosing to seek a fresh start, he moved to Nottingham Forest last year for a modest £3million - a far cry from the £35m that Bayern had offered for him four years earlier.

In an interview with Mail Sport, the Champions League winner conceded that leaving his childhood club was essential for him to rediscover his love for the game.

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Discussing his time at Chelsea, the player reflected: "I got the opportunities at Chelsea and played a lot of games," adding that it was eventually time to move on. "But I got to the point where I had to look at it and realize it had been nice, but it was time to go. It was a big decision but the right one.

"You have to recognize when it is the right time to move on. And that was my time. A case of needing to get out of there - not in a bad way - but to go and find my football again and enjoy myself again."

His career saw an upturn with Forest, where he netted eight Premier League goals last season and scored a dazzling winner against Liverpool earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Nuno Espirito Santo's Nottingham Forest will be aiming to continue their unbeaten start to the season having won twice and drawn three times in their opening five games.

They face Chelsea on October 6, with Hudson-Odoi expressing a hope for a positive reception: "It’s a nice feeling to go back to Chelsea next week, I haven’t been back since I left. Hopefully the fans won’t boo me, hopefully they will clap or something. I’ve got a lot of love for Chelsea, that’s the club I grew up with as a kid, but we’ll go there as the same mentality as we did against Liverpool to hopefully get three points."

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