Palmer: Wanted No. 10 shirt to emulate idol Messi

Cole Palmer has revealed helium wanted Chelsea's fig 10 garment to emulate his idols Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney.

The 23-year-old antecedently played with No. 20 connected his backmost but changed up of the Club World Cup and wore his caller fig for the archetypal clip successful Monday's 2-0 triumph implicit Los Angeles FC.

Asked if the determination were immoderate fig 10s helium peculiarly saw arsenic relation models, Palmer said: "Messi, the large one, Rooney and players similar that. It's conscionable an iconic number. I wore No. 10 each my beingness increasing up and I conscionable similar the number."

Former Chelsea greats Eden Hazard, Joe Cole and Willian wore the fig 10 garment but it was astir precocious taken by Mykhailo Mudryk, who is facing a imaginable prohibition of up to 4 years aft the Football Association charged him connected Wednesday with a doping offence relating to a affirmative drugs test.

"I person not spoken to Misha yet but I volition erstwhile the clip is right," said Palmer. "It is not truly my spot to get progressive with him astatine the minute. I volition talk to him."

Palmer besides played down immoderate suggestions of a disagreement with caput manager Enzo Maresca implicit Chelsea's benignant of play.

After creating 2 assists to assistance the Blues combat backmost against Real Betis to triumph past month's Conference League final, Palmer claimed helium was "sick of going backwards and sideways" and Maresca subsequently claimed helium spoke to the playmaker a time aboriginal to impulse him to beryllium much expressive.

"We had a gag astir it," said Palmer. "My comments weren't towards the manager oregon anything. It was conscionable a idiosyncratic thing. I felt similar successful the game, I was possibly being a spot safe. So that's wherever the remark came from.

"I wanted to get the shot and effort thing antithetic than previously. Obviously you can't instrumentality the p--- and bash similar immoderate you privation and stuff, but I consciousness similar helium [Maresca] inactive gives you a small spot of country to effort and spot what I tin do."

Palmer is 1 of the poster boys of the Club World Cup, his look adorning ample banners located crossed Philadelphia, wherever Chelsea are based for the adjacent week up of games against Flamengo and Esperance Sportive de Tunis.

Palmer joined Chelsea for a woody worthy £42.5 cardinal successful September 2023 aft conscionable 19 Premier League appearances for Manchester City but has rapidly established himself arsenic 1 of English football's brightest talents.

Asked astir his new-found fame and whether radical halt him successful the street, Pamer said: "I americium conscionable a mean kid truthful erstwhile radical bash worldly similar that I deliberation ... wherefore me?

"I inactive bash the aforesaid things present that I did earlier I came to Chelsea. I effort and deliberation it's conscionable a crippled of shot astatine the extremity of the day, similar it's not beingness oregon death. So I conscionable effort and bask it. I similar to spell and play five-side and spell to the astro [turf] and conscionable bash mean things [to instrumentality my caput disconnected things]."