Chelsea defender Levi Colwill, who calls on his teammates to complete the set in the final of tomorrow's final, explains how love for LEGO helped him through difficult moments last season through difficult moments
LEGO-loving Levi Colwill calls on Chelsea to complete the set tomorrow night. With Enzo Maresca, his masterpiece still builds bricks through brick, says Defender Colwill that a first trophy among their American owners will go a long way to reinstall a winning mentality at Stamford Bridge.
The Boyhood Blue has heard fans taunt their rivals with hymns of “we have won for years”. And he told his teammates the opportunity to become the first club to add Conference League glory to the other large two trophies of UEFA is too good to leave.
“If we win this competition, it will make us the most complete club and that is huge,” says Colwill. “That is bragging for the fans, the party. We should definitely win it for them.”
Colwill was used sparingly during the Chelsea tour by the less celebrated cities of European football, and is only two performances by the bank. But he is expected to start against Real Betis, after he has scored the goal that their Champions League return against Nottingham Forest has achieved on Sunday.
It was just a reward in a season of great growth for a player who remains happy to be his toughest critic. “I'm really hard for myself because I know how good I could be,” says Colwill. “I know that when I have been nonsense, I know when I have been good. That is the only way to improve.”
But sometimes to improve, he has to make his mind float somewhere else.
Halfway through last season, Colwill was out of shape and struggled with a toe injury. So he threw himself into building Lego sets, including a house with a house of 3,955 pieces only that he compiled in the background with the film.
And while the dressing room “goes over it”, Colwill admits: “I am still a big child. It just takes everything away. Last season when I struggled a bit, I started to do it.” It just brings you back when you are a child in terms of there are no worries, there are no problems.
“You feel relaxed and in your comfort zone. You don't think much more than that.” That's why I enjoy it so much. “
Colwill also describes itself as the scourge of the dressing room. “Ask everyone who is most annoying and they will probably tell me. I'm just a little bit, I think it's great,” he adds.
Yet Maresca has already heard his qualities as a vocal presence in a team that has questioned his lack of leadership. In the long term, he dreams of becoming a club captain – although his admiration for sitting bracelet carrier is Reece James Sky High.
“He is a very calm person,” Colwill continues. “At times when I am angry, I can show my emotions a lot, what he would not do. He is a leader, talks to the team, the team helps.
“That is what we need right now, especially with a young team. I think he is a great captain.”
And as a dominant center-back that came through the Cobham Academy, has inevitable comparisons with the most iconic leader of the club of the Premier League era.
Twenty years ago John Terry won the League Cup during the first spell of Jose Mourinho as a manager, who start an era of dominance.
And asked if this week can have a similar impact, Colwill adds: “Like John Terry, I am Chelsea through and through. It would mean a lot to win a trophy. As a child I have dreamed of that and what many children in the academy will do now.”