Chelsea ace Nathaniel Chalobah closing in on impressive England century… But he’ll only celebrate if it comes with Euro success

NATHANIEL CHALOBAH insists he will not celebrate reaching 100 England youth caps - unless he is holding the European Championship trophy.

The highly-rated Chelsea midfielder is currently on Under-21s duty preparing for an away game in France on Monday.

With 34 caps at this level and 91 in total for the U16s, U17s, U19s and U20s, an impressive century is in sight for the youngster.

Keep up to date with ALL the PREMIER LEAGUE news, gossip, transfers and goals on our club page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary

England have already qualified for next summer’s European Championship in Poland and have four games scheduled to play before the tournament.

With three group games and then straight into a semi-final, the ace could reach his milestone 100th cap in the final if he and his team-mates make it.

Chalobah said: “I don’t really pay attention to stuff like that, I just get told.

“But I suppose it’s a great achievement and I am proud. This is a really high level to be playing at for your country.

“Getting into the U21s is a great achievement on its own, no matter how many caps you get.

“As a group, though, we just want to keep moving forward and we all want to achieve bigger things: I don’t keep a count of how many games I have played, I just want to move forward.”

England U21s are currently on a run of 15 games without defeat and Thursday’s last-gasp victory over Italy was their sixth successive win.

Momentum is beginning to build as confidence grows within the group, but as a veteran of two Euros already, Chalobah is keen to get even more experience under his belt before the big kick-off in Poland.

He said: “Stats are stats [15 unbeaten], they don’t lie.

“But as a group we are trying to build towards the championships and we are trying to learn from different scenarios before we go to the tournament.

“Right now is making sure we get those experiences out of the way.

“We went behind against Italy but we got back and won the game at the end and that shows how resilient we are.”

Chalobah, who won the U17s Euros in 2010 and the U21s Toulon Tournament last summer, is also enjoying a momentous campaign away from international duty.

After six spells out on loan since 2012, the ace is finally starting to make a breakthrough at Chelsea and is a regular in Antonio Conte’s matchday squad.

And although he is delighted to have been given a chance by the Italian, he knows he still has a long way to go.

Chalobah added: “I feel like I have made strides and I am happy that the manager has given me a chance.

“But, as always, I just want to keep focused.

“There is a bigger picture and, personally, there are targets a lot bigger than where I am at the minute.

“All I can do is keep working towards those targets and making it difficult for the manager every week.”