Chelsea decided to stop signing players and were forced into offloading one of ‘their own’, allowing young left-back Lewis Hall to leave on loan to Premier League rivals Newcastle United – a club that he and his family have apparently been supporting for a long time.
Hall had his breakthrough at Chelsea last season, being one of the impressive aspects in what was a disastrous campaign. He produced some promising performances, and managed to catch the attention of many major clubs as a result.
With Ben Chilwell inserted as the stalwart left-back under Mauricio Pochettino, with Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella as the alternatives, Hall didn’t have much chance to feature prominently in the first-team, and Chelea decided to let him leave as a result.
What did Lewis Hall say after joining Newcastle United?
Hall, however, did not seem that gutted to leave the club that he’s been associated with since he was an eight-year-old. Indeed, the Englishman spent 11 years at the London club, but seems to be chuffed to be able to join Newcastle – which he claims to be the club he supported from his childhood.
The 18-year-old said upon joining the Magpies: “I’m very proud (to join Newcastle). Me and my family are Newcastle fans, and for me and my brother growing up, it was drilled into us that we were Newcastle. It’s a big club and I can’t wait to get started.”
Now, some Chelsea fans are finding it difficult to accept the fact that Hall was a huge Newcastle supporter even though he spent his entire youth career with them and got his professional debut with the Blues too. The Englishman was born in Slough, Berkshire and was not known to be around the Newcastle area either.
However, his love for the Magpies actually comes down from generations in his family lineage. It appears that his father, Colin, was from the Newcastle area and found a love for the club for the club from his own dad (Lewis’ grandfather) – an avid supporter of the Magpies. Colin was a former professional rugby player who avidly followed Newcastle during his time in the region.
How did Lewis Hall become a Newcastle United fan?
Hall’s family was probably forced to move away from Newcastle due to employment opportunities before he was born, hence why his upbringing was not in the city. However, the family’s love for the club never faded away and Colin ensured that his sons – Lewis and older brother Connor Hall would follow their heritage of being Newcastle United supporters.
Connor, also a footballer who plays as a forward for National League side Solihull Moors FC, has shown his love for Newcastle United in a very public way in the past too. A few years ago, he made a tweet professing his love for Newcastle legend Alan Shearer and urging to receive a reply from him on Twitter.
It appears that Lewis Hall’s love for Newcastle was well known among his peers in the Chelsea youth teams too.
A former teammate of him at the club, Xavier Simons, claims to have seen him support and follow the Magpies avidly at Chelsea and said: “Lewis spoke about it quite a bit. He was always checking the scores on the coach and talking about Newcastle so I’m delighted for him to get the deal done and go to the team he supports.”
Lewis has definitely made his family extremely proud by joining their beloved club, and the Magpies added a special touch to his unveiling as a new signing.
They urged him to bring his dad, Colin for the photoshoots and videos before he was officially announced as a Newcastle player, and the ex-rugby player appeared to be quite emotional and extremely proud of being able to see his son feature for his beloved club.
With that being said, just because he is a lifelong Newcastle fan does not mean that Hall will automatically be guaranteed a start in every game for his side. He will need to work hard and outperform players like Dan Burn and Tino Livramento to make that left-back his own and convince the Magpies to sign him on a permanent basis from Chelsea next year.