Levi Colwill's surprise hobby to help take Chelsea star's mind off football
Chelsea defender Levi Colwill, who is calling on his team-mates to complete the set in tomorrow's Conference League final, explains how love of Lego helped him through difficult moments last season
Lego-loving Levi Colwill is calling on Chelsea to complete the set tomorrow night. With Enzo Maresca still building his masterpiece brick-by-brick, defender Colwill says a first trophy under their American owners will go a long way to re-instilling a winning mentality at Stamford Bridge.
The boyhood Blue has heard fans taunt their rivals with chants of 'We've won it all' for years. And he has told his team-mates the chance to become the first club to add Conference League glory to UEFA's other big two trophies is too good to pass up.
'If we win this competition it will make us the most complete club and that's huge,' Colwill says. 'That's bragging rights for the fans, the lot. We definitely have to win it for them.'
Colwill has been used sparingly on Chelsea 's tour of European football's less celebrated cities, making just two appearances off the bench. But he is expected to start against Real Betis having scored the goal that clinched their Champions League return against Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
It was just reward in a season of major growth for a player who remains happy to be his toughest critic. 'I'm really harsh on myself because I know how good I could be,' Colwill says. 'I know when I've been rubbish, I know when I've been good. That's the only way I can improve.'
But sometimes to improve he needs to let his mind drift elsewhere.
Midway through last season Colwill was out of form and struggling with a toe injury. So he threw himself into building Lego sets, including a 3,955-piece Home Alone house that he pieced together with the film on repeat in the background.
And while the dressing room 'get on to me over it' Colwill admits: 'I'm still a big kid. It just takes your mind away from everything. Last season when I was struggling a little bit I started doing it. 'It just takes you back to when you're a kid in terms of there's no worries, there's no problems.
'You feel relaxed and in your comfort zone. You're not thinking about much more than that. 'That's why I enjoy it so much.'
Colwill also describes himself as the changing room pest. 'Ask anyone who is the most annoying and they'll probably say me. I'm just a wind up, I love it,' he adds.
Yet Maresca has already hyped up his qualities as a vocal presence in a squad that has had its lack of leadership questioned. Long-term he has dreams of becoming club captain - though his admiration for incumbent armband wearer Reece James is sky high.
'He's a very calm-headed person,' Colwill continues. 'At times when I'm angry I can show my emotions a lot, which he wouldn't. He is a leader, talks to the team, helps the team.
'That's what we need at the moment, especially with a young squad. I think he's an amazing captain.'
And being a dominant centre-back who came through the Cobham academy brings inevitable comparisons with the club's most iconic captain of the Premier League era.
Twenty years ago John Terry won the League Cup during Jose Mourinho 's first spell as manager, kickstarting an era of dominance.
And asked if this week can have a similar impact, Colwill adds: 'Similar to John Terry I've been Chelsea through and through. It would mean a lot to win a trophy. It's what I dreamed of as a kid and what many kids in the academy now will be doing.'
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