Although 18-year-old Ben Chrisene only has five professional substitute appearances to his name having come through Exeter City’s Academy set up, he has long been highly rated by our coaches following his arrival back in August 2020 for an undisclosed fee and earlier today he made the switch to Kilmarnock.
Wishing all the best to Ben Chrisene, who has joined Kilmarnock on a season-long loan. 🤝
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 25, 2022
Reportedly at the time, we fought off interest from Fulham, Liverpool and Chelsea during the process for the then midfielder and Exeter’s youngest ever player, and he worked his way quietly through the ranks over the last few years and even seen himself converted to left back – where he’s made quite a few appearances on the bench for the first team following the departure of Matt Targett to Newcastle United. He made his debut for us in the FA Cup clash with Liverpool in January 2021 where we were forced to field a very youthful side owing to a Covid outbreak.
Having helped us to win the FA Youth Cup back in 2021, he was involved in head coach Steven Gerrard’s pre-season trip to Austria and he now heads north of the border for a spell with the Scottish Premiership side.
Taking the No 33 shirt for the remainder of the season with them, he was involved in training today and goes straight into their squad for contention in Saturday’s clash with Motherwell.
Speaking to their Official Site, he was certainly relishing the experience.
“I’m buzzing to be fair, It’s exciting for me and for the club as well I hope, on a personal note it’s good for me to play every week and the club has such a high ambition and pushing for top six is what everyone wants, hopefully I can help. I’m a left back, see myself as a dynamic player if the gaffer needs me to adapt, I’m very powerful, good on the ball and can defend. It’s exciting coming to Scotland, not many people get to experience Scottish football, I’ve been told all about it and the competitiveness and the skill within it, which not everyone knows about. I’m really looking forward to Saturday.”
It should be a really good spell for him once he finds his feet, as the Liverpool experience aside, this will be his first real experience of a higher level and give us more of a clue just how close to real contention he may be for us next season.
