Antonio Conte has backed Andreas Christensen to become Chelsea's captain in the future.
The 21-year-old has broken into, and cemented, his spot in Conte's starting Xi this season having returned from a two-year loan spell at Borussia Monchengladbach last summer.
Such have been his consistent and solid performances, Chelsea handed the defender a new four-and-a-half-year deal in January.
Christensen suffered a high-profile mistake on Tuesday night when his misplaced pass in the Champions League was pounced upon by Andres Iniesta to set up Lionel Messi for Barcelona's equaliser at Stamford Bridge.
Conte defended Christensen after the 1-1 draw and the Chelsea boss went further on Friday, telling reporters at Cobham: "Personally I forgot this mistake. Also for him.
"When you are a player, you can make a lot of mistakes in your career. If I had to talk about all the mistakes I made in my career, we'd have to be here for one day. It doesn't matter.
"Christensen is having a fantastic season and showing great maturity. For me, apart from the mistake, his performance was great, was wonderful.
"I have a lot of trust in Christensen. This player is a player for the present for Chelsea, and for Chelsea's future for 10 or 12 years.
"He can also become the captain of this team in the future."
