Lewis Baker
From TheChels.info - The Chelsea Football Club Wiki
| Lewis Baker | |
| |
| Full Name | Lewis Renard Baker |
| Date of Birth | 25 April 1995 |
| Place of Birth | Luton, England |
| Position | Attacking midfielder |
| Chelsea career | 2005 - 2022 |
| Debut | 5 January 2014 |
| Games (goals) | 2 (0) |
| Other clubs | Luton Town Sheffield Wednesday (loan) MK Dons (loan) Vitesse Arnhem (loan) Middlesbrough (loan) Leeds United (loan) Reading (loan) Fortuna Dusseldorf (loan) |
Lewis Baker (born 25 April 1995 in Luton, England) is an attacking midfielder who spent 17 years at Chelsea. He joined the club at the age of nine, and made his first team debut in January 2014.
Contents |
Before Chelsea
Lewis joined Chelsea from Luton Town in 2005 after being scouted in a junior youth competition. He is the son of former world champion powerlifter Audley Baker, and has the rare gift of being able to use either foot to the same proficiency.
Chelsea career
Lewis made his Chelsea academy debut as a schoolboy during the 2010-11 season after being a part of the club's victorious Milk Cup squad in August 2010. He scored his first goal in spectacular fashion, firing home from the edge of the box against MK Dons in March 2011.
A regular in the team for 2011-12, Lewis can play in any central midfield role or out wide and has grown into a player who looks to take control of the game and help his team out.
He was in exceptional form in the second half of the season, finishing with seven goals to his name, and was a driving force behind the team's run to 2011-12 FA Youth Cup victory, and earned recognition and selection by Dermot Drummy at Reserve level, something which would continue into the 2012-13 season as he became an Under-21 regular.
He also served as captain for both the 2012-13 FA Youth Cup and 2012-13 NextGen Series campaigns, both competitions which Chelsea reached the Final of before falling short at the last. He reached double figures in goals across all competitions and established himself as one of the club's players of the season at junior age level, and then continued in the same vein when 2013-14 kicked off, with goals and assists coming in their usual steady and plentiful supply.
Having impressed on a consistent basis in the first half of the season, he was rewarded with a first team debut on 5 January 2014 against Derby County in the FA Cup, playing the last ten minutes of the match. He went from strength to strength in the second half of the season in leading the Under-21s to the 2013-14 Under-21 Premier League title, scoring 13 goals (18 in all competitions) along the way and grabbing the winner in the Final against Manchester United. In addition, his goal against Arsenal in April was voted Goal of the Season at the club's end of season awards.
Despite being promoted to the first team squad on a full-time basis ahead of the 2014-15 season, further first team opportunities were not forthcoming before Christmas and a sparse Under-21 schedule combined with injuries meant he played relatively little football at all as 2014 closed out. It led to a loan move to Sheffield Wednesday but he was recalled after just four appearances before then joining Milton Keynes Dons for the rest of the season. It was there he thrived, scoring three very impressive goals en route to helping the club achieve promotion to the Championship.
On June 25th 2015 it was announced that he would spend the 2015-16 season on loan at Vitesse Arnhem. He became one of their most important players in a campaign in which they did well before Christmas only to suffer after the departure of manager Peter Bosz, and his five goals included spectacular long-range strikes against De Graafschap and NEC. Returning there in 2016-17, he went from strength to strength, scoring fifteen goals in all competitions, including five in the cup as he helped Vitesse to their first-ever major honour, defeating AZ Alkmaar 2-0 in the final.
After spending pre-season with Antonio Conte's first-team, he joined Middlesbrough for 2017-18, but after a decent start was left out of almost every matchday squad between October and May. Playing 790 minutes all season, the option of a second year at the Riverside Stadium was not taken up, and he joined Leeds on another loan for the 2018-19 season. As Marcelo Bielsa failed to make the most of his talents, he swapped Elland Road for Reading's Madejski Stadium halfway through the season, and found his best form again. That was parlayed into a switch to Fortuna Dusseldorf in Germany for 2019-20 but, after making just eight appearances in the first half of the season, he cut another deal short.
International
Lewis has represented England at every age level up to Under-21 and has captained his country at all bar the most senior of those. He finished as the Top Goalscorer at the 2016 Toulon Tournament, scoring four times in his four appearances as England won the title for the first time in 22 years, and is amongst the all-time Under-21 leading goalscorers.
Statistics
Youth, Reserve and Under-21 Football
| Season | Under-18 | Euro U19 | Under-21 | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |
| 2010-11 | 19 | 1 | - | - | 0 | 0 | 19 | 1 |
| 2011-12 | 30 | 7 | - | - | 4 | 0 | 34 | 7 |
| 2012-13 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 16 | 6 | 35 | 14 |
| 2013-14 | - | - | 8 | 5 | 25 | 13 | 33 | 18 |
| 2014-15 | - | - | - | - | 6 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| 2021-22 | - | - | - | - | 13 | 3 | 13 | 3 |
| Total | 58 | 12 | 18 | 9 | 64 | 23 | 140 | 44 |
First team
| Season | Club | Prem | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| 2013-14 | Chelsea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2014-15 | Chelsea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014-15 | Sheffield Wednesday (loan) | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2014-15 | Milton Keynes Dons (loan) | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 3 |
| 2015-16 | Vitesse Arnhem (loan) | 31 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 5 |
| 2016-17 | Vitesse Arnhem (loan) | 33 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 15 |
| 2017-18 | Middlesbrough (loan) | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 2 |
| 2018-19 | Leeds United (loan) | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| 2018-19 | Reading (loan) | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 1 |
| 2019-20 | Fortuna Dusseldorf (loan) | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| Total | 129 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 145 | 26 | |
Senior stats correct as of the end of the 2019-20 season
Career honours
- 2011-12 FA Youth Cup
- 2013-14 Under-21 Premier League
- 2016 Toulon Tournament (England Under-21s)
- 2016-17 KNVB Beker
