Ruben Ira Loftus-Cheek

Loftus-Cheek came through the Chelsea academy from the age of eight, working his way up over a decade before making his senior debut against Sporting CP in the Champions League in December 2014. Progress from there was interrupted rather than steady: loan spells took him to Crystal Palace, where he made 24 appearances and scored twice, and later to Fulham, where he added 30 appearances and a goal. Those stints away gave him the regular football that had been harder to find at Stamford Bridge.

He still won silverware with Chelsea, picking up the Premier League title in 2016–17 and the Europa League in 2018–19. His only major tournament appearance for England came at the 2018 World Cup, when he was brought on as a substitute against Tunisia, part of a senior international career that began that November against Germany. After that his caps were sparse for years, and it was not until October 2025, under Thomas Tuchel, that he returned to the fold, coming on as a substitute against Wales.

His move away from Chelsea in the summer of 2023 took him to Milan, opening a new one in Italy. The switch marked the first sustained first-team role of his career at a single club since he broke through as a teenager, after years in which loans and squad rotation had shaped his path more than settled starting football.