Islam Feruz

From TheChels.info - The Chelsea Football Club Wiki

Islam Feruz
0Full Name	Islam Salieh Feruz
0Date of Birth	10 September 1995
0Place of Birth	Kismayo, Somalia
0Position	Forward
0Chelsea career	2011 - 2019
0Debut	n/a
0Games (goals)	n/a
0Other clubs	Celtic OFI Crete (loan) Blackpool (loan) Hibernian (loan)

Islam Feruz (born 10th September 1995 in Kismayo, Somalia) is a forward who joined Chelsea from Celtic in September 2011.

Contents 1 Pre-Chelsea career 2 Chelsea career 3 International 4 Career statistics 5 Career honours

Pre-Chelsea career

Islam made headlines in Scottish football at the tender age of 12, having played well above his age group for both club and country. He starred in the Victory Shield for Scotland as a 13 year-old and trained with Celtic's first team later that same season, featuring in an end-of-season testimonial.

A refugee from Somalia, Celtic - and in particular Tommy Burns - pleaded his case to stay in Scotland when problems arose with his family's situation. He joined Chelsea in September 2011 for a reported £300,000.

Chelsea career

Islam scored on his Under-18 debut in October 2011, netting away to Portsmouth. By the turn of the year he had netted half a dozen times and made his debut for the club's reserve team and he continued in the same fashion in the second half of the season, finishing as the Youth Team's top goalscorer with 12 goals and grabbing two for the Reserves, which both came against Norwich City in March 2012.

He scored two goals in the first leg of the 2011-12 FA Youth Cup Final and was also the team's top scorer in the competition with five in total.

2012-13 saw Islam promoted to the Under-21 ranks on a regular basis and he performed admirably, scoring eight times in eleven appearances including a sensational patch of form around the middle of the season where he scored on a goal per game basis across all age groups for a six-game spell. He also finished as the joint leading scorer in the 2012-13 NextGen Series and featured heavily in the club's run to another FA Youth Cup Final.

The arrival of Isaiah Brown at the start of the 2013-14 season meant he was occasionally moved out to a wider position or even to the bench in some cases but his form in the first half of the season was largely impressive and, like Brown, had racked up seven goals by Christmas.

Whilst his production didn't quite reach the highs of previous seasons coach Dermot Drummy regularly pointed out his hard work and sacrifice for the team in a lone role up front and he played an important part in the Under-21 Premier League title success; scoring away to Manchester City in the Semi Finals whilst providing a goal for Lewis Baker in two of the last three outings including the final at Old Trafford against Manchester United.

2014-15 took a very weird and disappointing turn overall for Feruz. A summer move to Russian Second Division side Krylya Sovetov fell through at the last minute when he decided that he didn't want to move to Samara, and so instead he joined Greek top flight outfit OFI Crete. Under the management of Gennaro Gattuso he played just three times - his solitary league appearance coming away to Olympiacos - and in January joined Blackpool. He lasted barely a month before the troubled club parted with his services amid claims of a questionable attitude.

Returning north of the border for 2015-16, a spell with Championship side Hibernian promised much but, once again, failed to deliver. Feruz made just half a dozen appearances totalling 63 minutes before returning to Chelsea halfway through the season and, despite trialling elsewhere including with a Kazakh team, he was unable to find another loan move. Failed moves to Mouscron and Swindon in the coming years preceded his eventual release from the club in January 2019.

International

Islam is an experienced Scottish youth international, representing them at every level up to Under-21, where he scored twice on his debut away to Portugal in 2012. He has not, however, represented them since 2014 after refusing a series of call-ups.

He remains eligible to play for Somalia and Tanzania.

Career statistics

Youth, Reserve and Under-21 Football

Season	Under-18		European		Under-21		Total
	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2011-12	21	12	-	-	2	2	23	14
2012-13	8	3	10	7	11	8	29	18
2013-14	0	0	8	3	23	8	31	11
2014-15	-	-	-	-	0	0	0	0
2015-16	-	-	-	-	2	0	2	0
Total	29	15	18	10	38	18	85	43

Senior Club Football

Season	Club	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2014-15	OFI Crete (loan)	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
2014-15	Blackpool (loan)	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
2015-16	Hibernian (loan)	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
2016-17	Mouscron (loan)	7	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	0
2016-17	Swindon Town (loan)	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Total		20	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	23	0

Career honours

• 2011-12 FA Youth Cup
• 2013-14 Under-21 Premier League