January is the time when the nominations for the EA SPORTS Team of the Year are announced, and on this occasion three Blues have the honor. Here we outline the reasons behind their nominations and let our fans know how to vote for them in the final selection…
EA SPORTS have selected Thiago Silva, Reece James and Kalidou Koulibaly for their shortlist of 100 players.
The voting window is now open and will close on Monday 16 January at 7.59am UK time, with results expected to be announced on Thursday 19 January.
Thiago Silva
2022 was another outstanding year for our evergreen centre-back, who was named player of the tournament as we won the FIFA Club World Cup for the first time in history. In the first half of the year, he surpassed Didier Drogba’s record as Chelsea’s oldest Premier League goalscorer – against Tottenham in January – and then became our oldest outfield player in the competition – at Arsenal in April.
During the current season, he marked his 100th Champions League appearance with a win at his former club AC Milan and continued to be composed and experienced in the Chelsea squad, before captaining Brazil at the World Cup.
Reece James
Despite a year full of injuries, our star on the right was still able to shine brightly, not least when we pushed Real Madrid hard in the Champions League or when he was putting the ball into AC Milan’s net at Stamford Bridge. He returned from a muscle injury in time to produce a string of impressive performances towards the end of last season, excelling at full-back or back three, including that night in Spain, and finished the campaign with three assists in as many games.
That form continued in the 2022/23 season, with James scoring against Tottenham in our first home game, and scoring a goal and an assist in the home win over Milan. Unfortunately, a knee injury in the second leg at San Siro ruled him out of action until the end of 2022 and what looked almost certain to be a starting role for England at the World Cup, after establishing himself as an important player for the Three Lions over the past year.
Kalidou Koulibaly
The Senegal captain arrived at Stamford Bridge midway through the year having already led his country to the Africa Cup of Nations crown for the first time in their history. Shortly after swapping Napoli for Chelsea, he endeared himself to the Blues faithful by scoring against Tottenham in his first home game, helping us keep a clean sheet in his debut win over Everton.
Koulibaly has quickly established himself as a regular in the Blues defense which has kept five more clean sheets in consecutive games this autumn, including at home and away against AC Milan. He then captained Senegal again at the World Cup, scoring the winner against Ecuador that secured the nation’s place in the knockout stages for only the second time.