Chelsea have been handed a big boost in their pursuit of Borussia Dortmund youngster Mathis Albert.

It has been a contrasting season for the 17-year-old thus far. While Albert has starred internationally, making his senior debut for the US and briefly becoming his country's youngest-ever scorer, he has barely featured at the club level.

Heading into the new season, Albert was permanently promoted to Borussia Dortmund's first team and expected to play a significant role as the club rate the teenage prospect very highly. Given his origin and position, he has been compared favourably to Christian Pulisic.

However, things aren't going to plan for the attacker, who is an awkward fit for Niko Kovac's wingerless system. Ahead of the summer, the coach and club hierarchy wanted to change course and play with traditional wingers, but the vagaries of the transfer market forced them to abandon this plan.

Instead, Dortmund doubled down on the status quo and sold several wide players, with Albert effectively the last man standing. Obviously, Kovac won't change his system just to accommodate a 17-year-old, which has resulted in a lack of minutes for the teenager.

Kovac pushes Albert to Chelsea

Since playing the full 90 against lower-league side HEBC Hamburg in the DFB-Pokal at the start of September, Albert has only clocked 20 minutes of senior football. Unsurprisingly, reports have started surfacing that he is growing frustrated.

It was recently revealed that PSG tried to poach him from Dortmund as early as the summer of 2025, followed by Chelsea and Man City indicating in January that they would be ready to pay up to €20 million for Albert. There were more approaches this summer.

Dortmund rebuffed all of these overtures, but they will find it increasingly difficult to keep hold of Albert if they can't give him a clear pathway to more senior action. Betting on youth had originally been the plan for this season, but as it turns out, this is easier said than done.

Worryingly, the situation appears to be getting worse. After playing against Union Berlin two weeks ago - his only first-team appearance apart from that Pokal clash - Albert missed last weekend's game versus Eintracht Frankfurt.

He was demoted to the reserves and played the first half in a 2-0 win against Bonner SC in the fourth-tier Regionalliga West. According to coach Kovac, Albert and others will have to get used to playing with the B Team again.

Speaking to WAZ amid Dortmund's recent form slump, Kovac suggested that the club skewed perhaps a bit too far in the direction of young players and admitted that he hasn't always managed to get the balance between youth and experience right with his line-ups.

Specifically, it has been reported that Kovac's trust in some of his youngsters was undermined by Dortmund's disastrous 1-0 Champions League loss to Bodo/Glimt. "I take full responsibility for that, we were a bit too young for the Champions League," he confessed.

Regarding the lack of minutes for players like Albert, he added: "It's true, the young players are currently lagging a bit behind. As a coach, when matches are getting tight, you tend to bring on more experienced players."

Kovac urges his prospects to remain patient, but he can't promise first-team action anytime soon. "They need to remain patient, they need to make themselves available in training - and also through the U23s," he said.

"They need playing time to develop further, training sessions aren't enough. And because of our congested schedule in recent and upcoming weeks, there isn't much time together in training, so they'll be playing one or two matches with the reserves."

This is the exact opposite of what Albert expected this season and might force him to seriously consider his long-term future at Dortmund. Chelsea and his other suitors will surely be attentive to the situation.