Town have confirmed the signing of 17-year-old winger Chris Atherton from Chelsea, as revealed by TWTD yesterday.

Atherton joined Glenavon aged five and made his debut for their first team in the Irish League Cup aged only 13 years and 329 days, making him the youngest player ever to appear in a senior game in the UK.

Having made 32 appearances, scoring once, for the Lurgan-based club, Atherton moved on to Chelsea’s youth set-up in July 2025, signing a professional deal later in the season, having been linked with the club for a couple of years.

Atherton will go into the U18s squad but is also likely to feature for the U21s in the season ahead.

“I’m delighted to be here and can’t wait to get started,” Atherton said regarding his switch to the Blues.

“I hope to offer a lot of creativity and attacking threat going forward and obviously working as hard as possible to get better every day.”

Academy manager Ben Chenery added: “We are extremely pleased to announce the signing of Chris Atherton from Chelsea.

“Chris is an exciting attacking player we believe possesses big potential which we look forward to continuing to develop through the next stage of his career.”

Clonmore-born Atherton won Northern Irish caps at U16 and U17 levels before switching allegiance to the Republic of Ireland for whom he has been capped twice at U19 level.

Town have signed a number of young players from Chelsea’s academy in recent seasons. Left-back Somto Boniface and forward Frankie Runham joined directly, while Tudor Mendel was brought in following a year with Anderlecht.

Jimmy Smith, who moved from coaching the Blues’ U16s to the U18s last season, previously worked at Chelsea and is likely to be familiar with Atherton from his time there.

Photo: ITFC/Matchday Images