Romeo Lavia was not among the Chelsea players who lined up to receive a medal after they won the Conference League on Wednesday night. Chelsea players celebrate after winning the UEFA Conference League trophy. Chelsea came from behind to beat Real Betis 4-1 at the Wroclaw Stadium in Poland to become the first club to win all the three available European club trophies. A superb second-half performance after Betis had them on strings in the first half did the damage to ensure they ended the season with silverware, days after securing a return to the Champions League. Cole Palmer inspired the turnaround, setting up Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson with two assists to set the Blues on their way. Jadon Sancho added a beautiful curler before Moises Caicedo completed the rout with a rasping shot near the edge of the area.
The win sparked wild celebrations as the squad won their first trophy under the new ownership. Captain Reece James is the only surviving player from the team that won the Champions League in 2021. As the players stepped onto the podium to receive their medals from UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, Lavia was spotted stepping aside and thus wasn’t one of the players to receive a medal. As initially reported by TUKO.co.ke, the Belgian was ineligible to play in the final as he hadn’t been registered. Head coach Enzo Maresca had omitted him from the squad last season as he continued to manage his minutes following an injury-ridden spell in West London. When the squads were updated after the league phase, the former Southampton man was still not included and thus not an officially registered player for the final.
However, it is interesting that the Belgian didn’t get one given that at least three of Tottenham’s unregistered players received medals last week after winning the Europa League. Sergio Reguillon and January signing Antonín Kinský were all on the podium in Bilbao despite not being part of the registered players. The mix-up saw captain Heung-min Son, Christian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur all miss medals, but this was later addressed as UEFA provided extra medals. It is also therefore highly likely that Lavia will eventually be given a medal since the winning clubs are always awarded 50 medals, which they distribute as they see fit.
By Martin Moses
