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As a young girl, Nelly Las used to watch Lucy Bronze and dream of becoming just like her. When she enjoyed her breakthrough campaign at Leicester City at only 16, she even shared the pitch with the Lionesses legend as the Foxes held the Blues to a 1-1 draw. Now, the player she once idolised and used as a benchmark will be her team-mate after Las became Chelsea’s fourth signing of the summer.

“[It’s] kind of crazy being here and knowing she's going to be my team-mate,” the 18-year-old said last week in her first interview after moving from Leicester to west London. But with it being just over a year since Las told The Athletic, “I want to be like Lucy Bronze, better than her even,” there may be no better environment for her to chase that ambition than learning from the England star, as well as Australia’s world-class right-back Ellie Carpenter, on the training pitches at Cobham every day.

That is what awaits Las this season after Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor and her staff identified her as a player and prospect worth targeting in this summer’s transfer window. Bompastor previously led Lyon’s academy before building her reputation as head coach of the first team at the eight-time European champions, so she knows exactly what it takes to develop young talent.

But as Chelsea aim to recover from their poorest Women’s Super League season in seven years, what exactly is it about Las that convinced Bompastor and the club she was worth signing?

Where it all began

Las, whose full surname is actually Lasova, has Slovak roots, and both she and her two brothers are fluent in the language. In 2006, a year before she and her twin brother Noel were born, her mother Paula moved from Slovakia to England with her eldest son Tobias. All three children then grew up in the Leicester area, each of them football-mad.

Las would kick a ball around with Noel while Tobias played football, before joining her own team at the age of five. That team was Beaumont Park, where she played alongside boys until eventually joining Leicester at 13. The Foxes had in fact approached her three years earlier, which led to her spending a season with the club, but her mother, whom Las describes as the biggest influence on her career because of her support and sacrifice, felt her development would be better served at Beaumont Park at that stage, so she soon returned there.

In the years between her two spells with Leicester, Las kept doing more and more in pursuit of becoming a professional footballer. She joined a gym, lifted weights and worked in one-to-one sessions with different coaches. The versatile wide player developed a relentless athletic edge that has become one of the defining features of her game, alongside her impressive technical ability.

That helped her become a regular for Leicester’s Under-21 side at the age of 15 and has also been key in her rise through England’s pathway, with Las choosing to represent the country of her birth at international level. She was part of the Young Lionesses team that reached the final of the Under-17 Euros in 2024 and the semi-finals of the Under-17 World Cup later that year. Since then, she has also represented the Under-19s, including at last year’s Euros, and the Under-20s, who have a World Cup coming up later this year.

The big break

Las made her senior debut in October 2024 when she was still only 16. At the time, Leicester were managed by Amandine Miquel, the former Reims boss who has played a major part in the careers of players such as Lyon talisman Melchie Dumornay, Manchester United first-choice goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, and France international Naomie Feller, who has just joined Paris Saint-Germain after four years at Real Madrid. In a League Cup match against Bristol City, Las became another young player trusted by Miquel.

She would go on to make 16 more appearances before the season ended, scoring her first senior goal in the FA Cup win over Stoke City and then making her first start a few days later in the Women’s Super League clash with Tottenham. All of that came before one of the biggest moments of her young career so far arrived against Manchester City in February 2025.

It was a difficult day for Leicester in a season made even harder by injuries. After an hour, they were 3-0 down and on their way out of the FA Cup. But Las still produced a bright moment late on when she was played in down the right and calmly slotted home her second senior goal. It was a standout moment in a breakthrough season that firmly established her as one of the leading young talents in English women’s football.

How it's going

The 2025-26 season did not follow the same path. Miquel was surprisingly dismissed by Leicester less than a fortnight before the campaign began, and her replacement Rick Passmoor handed Las only five appearances before the winter break. A loan move to Ipswich Town, who were bottom of WSL 2, followed in the New Year, but minutes were even harder to come by there, with just two appearances in total.

Even so, that did not stop Chelsea from giving Las another major milestone in her career this summer. Last week, the 18-year-old was announced as the Blues’ fourth signing of the window, agreeing a four-year contract after Chelsea activated the release clause in her Leicester deal.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” Las said. “It's something you dream of when you start football, to sign for a team like Chelsea and to reach a level like this. I'm speechless.”

Biggest strengths

Las’ athleticism is one of the first things that stands out about her. She is exceptionally quick, and that instantly puts defenders under pressure, especially because of how positive she is in possession. The teenager then adds technical quality to that athletic threat, showing real class on the ball.

That blend of attributes made Scott Chickelday, the highly respected individual coach who has worked with Alessia Russo, Ollie Watkins and Jeremie Frimpong, “desperate to work with her”, as he told The Athletic. “I saw her striking the ball and I thought, ‘Wow, this is going to be a special player’.”

Her versatility is another major plus. Although she has mainly been used as a right-back in the England set-up, she also emerged as a very strong option further forward when Leicester were hit by a number of injuries in attack.

“I think that her physical quality of speed and being able to repeat those high-speed actions a lot in a short number of time is definitely something making a big difference in the game now,” Miquel explained.

However, the French coach believes wing-back may be the role in which Las can truly thrive, because it suits her all-round athletic profile best: “Because she can make the effort, she has got the speed and good quality of finishing and technique.”

Then there is Las’ mentality. “There’s a player that wants to be a footballer and there’s a player that has to be a footballer,” Chickelday said. “Nelly’s attitude is that she has to be a footballer.”

Room for improvement

Despite all the extra work she has put in, and despite adapting well to senior football, Las can still become stronger and more physically dominant. That should come with time as she continues her development and faces more battles against the best players in the WSL.

She already shows good qualities in one-on-one defending, and that side of her game should also benefit from further physical development. But there is still room for improvement in her off-the-ball play, particularly in understanding when to press, when to cover and where to position herself. That is perhaps not surprising given the variety of roles she has played so far, with different triggers and instructions each time, but it is something that should improve naturally with more experience, especially given her focus and determination.

The next... Niamh Charles?

Finding the right player comparison for Las is not straightforward because of how differently she has been used at club and international level. With England’s youth teams, she is often deployed as a traditional full-back, while most of her experience at Leicester came in attacking positions. Miquel’s view that the combination of her qualities could make her an outstanding wing-back feels convincing, but she has not played there regularly either.

Her admiration for Bronze is clear in the way she drives up and down the flank to contribute in both attack and defence, but her burst of pace is more explosive than the Lionesses star’s, while her defensive game, which is one of Bronze’s real strengths, still needs a little refinement.

She also shares certain traits with Niamh Charles, who has just left Chelsea for Manchester City. The England international first made her name as a forward before moving into a full-back role, which means she brings attacking instincts into defensive areas while continuing to improve the other side of her game. Even so, Charles does not possess quite the same burst of speed as Las, and the teenager is certainly a more direct player. In that sense, she is closer to Bronze than Charles. So, if a comparison has to be made, Las probably sits somewhere between the two.

What comes next?

It will be fascinating to see what Las’ first season at Chelsea looks like. There is strong competition at right-back because of Bronze and Carpenter, and breaking into a squad of this level is never simple. But the Blues will have a heavy schedule, and any injuries could create openings for more opportunities.

Last season, Veerle Buurman provided the perfect example of how quickly circumstances can change. Chelsea looked well stocked at centre-back on paper, with Millie Bright, Kadeisha Buchanan, Nathalie Bjorn and Naomi Girma among the options, but injuries and absences opened the door for Buurman, still a teenager, in the New Year. She seized that chance and went on to stand out as one of Chelsea’s best players in the 2025-26 season.

Whether Las has to show similar patience, or whether Bompastor decides to use her further forward at times as Miquel did at Leicester, remains to be seen. If the 18-year-old is selected in England’s squad for the Under-20 World Cup in September, that could make the need for patience at club level even greater, because she is unlikely to be thrown straight back into WSL action after what the Young Lionesses will hope is a long, demanding and ultimately successful month.

But Chelsea clearly believe Las has something special, otherwise they would not have brought her in. And with Bronze having renewed her contract for only one more year this summer, strong development from Las could help ensure the club have real depth at right-back beyond the England star’s time there, whether that ends in 2027 or later.

Sarina Wiegman and the Lionesses, too, would be delighted if Las lives up to that promise. For several years now, there has been ongoing discussion about who could become Bronze’s long-term successor at international level, with no obvious frontrunner at present. Could this teenager be the answer? It is a big burden to place on young shoulders, but she has already said she wants to be better than the Lionesses icon. Even getting close to Bronze’s level would be excellent news for England.