Its been a dream journey for Harley Faulconbridge from the Thame United Junior Premier League Under 14 side who has recently signed to join the Chelsea Academy.

Harley started his football journey back when he joined Thame in 2011 and started playing with the Under 6 mini kites. In 2021 he became one of the first players to join the newly formed Junior Premier League Thame United Under 10 team. In the 2023 / 2024 season he was selected to play for the league representative squad and was first scouted at a tournament in Hertfordshire at the beginning of the season.

In October 2023 Harley was invited to join the Integration Recruitment Program at Chelsea and to do additional weekly training at Hendon, under the watchful eye of Chelsea Academy coaches.

In the 2024 / 2025 season Harley was retained by Chelsea and continued to impress, his natural ability had been noticed by other clubs with the likes of Arsenal, QPR, Southampton, Fulham, Reading and Watford all scouting the youngster.

With the interest from other clubs, Chelsea decided to invite Harley to their training centre at Cobham for an 8 week trial and made his debut in a ‘triangular’ tournament against Manchester Utd and Arsenal where he impressed.

He went on to do well in further fixtures against Liverpool, Fulham, Ipswich, Brighton, Inter Milan and QPR, and after the conclusion of the trial was offered the chance to sign for the Chelsea Academy, which he did on the 20th May and was delighted to accept and now joins their U14’s for 2025 /26 season as a full academy player.

It’s been a great Journey for Harley and all at Thame United would like to congratulate him on his success and wish him well for the future.