Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has backed defender Kurt Zouma to replace John Terry as the
club's captain.
Zouma has made an impressive start to his Chelsea career, making 17 appearances in all competitions in his first full season following his
move from Saint-Etienne in January 2014.
Mourinho believes the 20-year-old is different to Terry, who is poised to sign a new deal at Stamford Bridge, but has tipped him to eventually
take the armband from the former England international.
"Terry and Zouma are different players. Sometimes you get replicas of players," the
Portuguese manager was quoted as saying by The Mirror.
"Other times you can't do it, and if you can't Zouma now is 20, so one day Zouma will be 23 or 24 and will be a player of great maturity and
probably leadership, too, to replace John.
"Zouma is playing more than I expected, more
than he expected, more than everyone expected.
So he's getting very important experience."
Zouma and Gary Cahill are currently competing for a position in central defence, and Mourinho hopes
an international call-up for the Frenchman will help accelerate his development.
"When he gets caps with France and is playing with Chelsea at this level, his development will have an acceleration," Mourinho added.
"We bought him because of his physical profile, but
we were not happy with his tactical knowledge of the game.
"We trusted we could give that to him. In pre-season, I saw mistakes in Germany against Werder Bremen. Mistakes in Hungary against Ferencvaros.
"I thought 'No problem, it will take time'. He's bright, humble, wants to work and learn, listens
and is intelligent, so he's had an acceleration in that process to bring him to a level where he is
competing with Gary Cahill."
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