Jacob Mellis
From TheChels.info - The Chelsea Football Club Wiki
| Jacob Mellis | |
| |
| Full Name | Jacob Alexander Mellis |
| Date of Birth | 8 January 1991 |
| Place of Birth | Nottingham, England |
| Position | Midfielder |
| Chelsea career | 2007 - 2012 |
| Debut | 23 November 2010 |
| Games (goals) | 1 (0) |
| Other clubs | Sheffield United Southampton (loan) Barnsley (loan) |
Jacob Mellis (born 8 January 1991) is an English midfielder who played for Chelsea until 2012, having joined as a youngster five years earlier. He made one brief first team appearance.
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Before Chelsea
Jacob joined Chelsea in 2007 from Sheffield United, for whom he had already featured as a 15 year-old Reserve player. The deal was reported to be worth up to £1.5m if certain clauses were activated over his career.
Chelsea career
Born in Nottingham and coming through the same youth set-up as Jermaine Jenas, it’s no surprise that the Spurs and England midfielder was Jacob’s role model as a young footballer. He quickly became a regular in the line-up and whilst it took him a while to find the back of the net, over the middle period of his first season he netted crucial goals in big games, and made a big impact on Chelsea’s run to the FA Youth Cup Final. At the end of the 2007-08 season, he signed a professional contract with the club
Becoming a reserve regular in 2008-09, his season started with injury problems but finished with a flourish, with excellent performances for the second string, and regularly finding the back of the net. His improvements didn’t go unnoticed, and he was named as a Premier League substitute for Chelsea’s home game against Everton (being assigned the number 50 shirt).
Jacob joined Southampton on loan at the start of the 2009-10 season, and despite decent form, never really got going in a team which was looking to recover from a ten point deduction due to administration. Despite being in good goalscoring form for England's Under-19s, he was unable to secure a regular place and returned to Chelsea at the turn of the year in order to complete enough time to be registered in their Champions League squad for 2010-11.
He made his first team debut as a last-minute substitute in the UEFA Champions League group match against MSK Zilina on 23 November 2010.
In January 2011, Jacob signed a new two-year contract at the club and immediately went on loan to Barnsley, where he scored in each of his first two appearances.
Mellis left Chelsea in March 2012, following a training ground prank in which he let off a smoke grenade in the reserve team dressing room at Cobham. Fellow reserve team player Billy Clifford had brought the grenade to the training ground and was fined for his involvement. [1]
International
Jacob has represented England at Under-16, Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19 level. He is a regular in the Under-19s and in November 2009 scored a goal in all three of their European Under-19 Championship Qualifiers to see the Three Lions through to the Elite Round.
Career Statistics
Youth Team Football
| Season | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | |
| 2007-08 | 21 | 5 |
| 2008-09 | 8 | 2 |
Reserve Team Football
| Season | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | |
| 2007-08 | 6 | 0 |
| 2008-09 | 10 | 3 |
| 2009-10 | 7 | 1 |
| 2010-11 | 6 | 1 |
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 | ||
| 2008-09 | Chelsea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2009-10 | Southampton (loan) | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| 2010-11 | Chelsea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2010-11 | Barnsley (loan) | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2 |
(Statistics accurate as of the end of the 2010-11 season)
Career honours
None
