Chelsea owner Boehly is mocked for Salah and De Bruyne claim

Todd Boehly has been mocked after suggesting Chelsea's academy produced Premier League stars Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne.

The Blues' American owner was hailing the production line at Stamford Bridge while addressing the SALT conference in New York on Tuesday.

He said: 'We have one of the best academies in the world. If you look at what our academy has developed, our academy is Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne.

'More recently, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Mason Mount, Trevoh Chalobah.

'We have 10 or 11 players right now that are either on loan and controlled by us, we have the right to buy them back, or they're playing for our team or academy.'

But supporters were quick to point out that, although Chelsea brought De Bruyne and Salah on while still at a young age, they certainly didn't graduate from their own academy.

Egyptian forward Salah, now at Liverpool, actually broke through at Egyptian Premier League club Al Mokawloon as a teenager before Swiss club Basel signed him in 2012.

He spent two seasons there before Chelsea signed him, aged 21, in a deal worth an initial £12million in January 2014.

But Salah played seldom at Stamford Bridge, making only 19 appearances and scoring just twice while also being loaned out to Fiorentina and then Roma, who signed him in 2016.

De Bruyne, now at Manchester City, came through the academy system at Genk in his native Belgium and played 113 times for their first team before Chelsea bought him as a 20-year-old for £7m in January 2012.

Like Salah, he rarely played for the club, making only nine first-team appearances, though he was sent on loan to Werder Bremen in his first season.

It was only when he joined Wolfsburg in 2014 that his career took off again and he duly developed into one of the world's best players after City signed him for £55m in August 2015.

Both players were international footballers for Egypt and Belgium respectively when Chelsea signed them.

Naturally, fans were quick to pick up on Boehly's blunder. One wrote: 'How are Salah and De Bruyne Chelsea's Academy? They were 22 and 21 when joining Chelsea. That's ridiculous.'

Another tweeted: 'In case it was necessary to point out how funny this statement is, Salah and De Bruyne had both played 120+ games of first team professional football before Chelsea bought them. Academy graduates?'

Even a Chelsea fan said: 'Who's gonna tell him that we didn't develop Mo or KdB?'