Levi Colwill: My Grassroots Story

I was obsessed with football from a young age – it's all I ever wanted to do.

My dad was massive in getting me into it. He'd take me down to the park and we'd be kicking balls all the time. Then when I was six he took me to a training session at City Central in Southampton. I was one of the youngest boys there but I could tell that I was ready. I started training with players who were older than me but I just really loved it. At home I'd always wake up before my dad and run around downstairs with my boots on. I think everyone was probably sick of me but I loved the game.

I joined them properly and started playing games with the year above me when I was seven, in the under-8s team. I was there until I signed for Chelsea, aged nine. I was a left-winger then because I was quick and liked to shoot. I can't do those things anymore!

I was playing all the time at school, too. I went to Springhill, then Beevers Town, and left there to go to London where I went to Kings Oak in Kingston. And then I left there to join Ludlow back in Southampton because my family missed everyone back home. But I never really minded how long the journey to training was, I just got on with it. I just wanted to play.

I was in the same young Chelsea team as Tino Livramento, Xavier Simons and Lewis Bate. They've all gone on to have good careers and we were a really tight-knit academy side.

Having come through the ranks, now I just want to keep going with Chelsea and England.

I still go and watch Sholing FC, a local team near where I grew up and who my uncles play for. Whenever I'm off I try and head down and I go on away days with them, too. You can probably tell it's a family obsessed with football. I love being around the team, it's a really fun atmosphere, and I can just be a fan. My uncles come and watch every game of mine that they can - they flew out to Georgia to watch the Under-21 EUROs final last summer and that means everything to me - so any chance I get to go and support them I will take.

It's all part of what is a football-mad world for me, which suits me nicely.