“Best young player I've ever seen,” Clement told Football Presse.
Kakuta was 16 when he joined Chelsea from Lens in 2007 and quickly became one of the most talked-about youngsters at Cobham.
“Left-footed, quick, could play as a number 10, or he could play off the side as well as a winger coming inside. Incredible talent.”
Yet his Chelsea career amounted to only 16 senior appearances. Loan spells followed at Fulham, Bolton Wanderers, Dijon, Vitesse, Lazio and Rayo Vallecano before he left permanently in 2015.
“He played in the first team, not very many games, but I think he found that initial step quite hard of going from youth football into senior football.”
That sentence explains why Kakuta is such an interesting case study in academy football. The talent was not the problem. The transition was.
“You don't always know. It's not always crystal clear.”
Kakuta nevertheless built a 17-year professional career, playing across Europe before representing DR Congo and returning for their 2026 World Cup campaign. He retired in July 2026, aged 35.
His story is made even more striking by another Chelsea academy name: Declan Rice.
Rice spent seven years at Chelsea before being released at 14. Unlike Kakuta, he was not viewed as an obvious future superstar. Chelsea simply decided he was not ready to continue in their system.
“There's not one way of doing it.”
Rice went to West Ham United, developed into an England international and eventually joined Arsenal for a fee that could reach £105 million. By 2026 he had become one of the Premier League's leading midfielders.
So Chelsea produced two almost opposite stories: the teenage prodigy who never became the superstar expected of him, and the academy player who was released before becoming one of the game's elite midfielders.
For Clement, that is precisely why academy coaches should be wary of believing they can predict the future.
“You see loads of examples of young players who have been released by certain clubs and then in the end they become like £100 million players.
“Chelsea released Declan Rice.”
He could also point to Harry Kane, another player released by a major academy before becoming an elite international striker.
“And then on the other hand, you get these super talents when they're young and you think, wow, what a great chance that he has to go all the way to the very top.
“And it just doesn't quite work out.”
Kakuta's challenge was made harder by the Chelsea environment itself. The first team was packed with established internationals, leaving little room for academy players to make the jump.
“There were not those opportunities. The windows weren't open. The door wasn't open for them to then go to the first team because the first team was packed with talent.
“Two players in each position of a very, very high level. And when that's the case, it's hard to bring in the young players.”
The breakthrough eventually came for a different Chelsea generation, when a transfer ban, senior departures and a changing squad opened the door for Mason Mount, Reece James, Tammy Abraham, Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah.
“When they got their chance, they really, really took it.”
But Rice had already taken another route. His release is now one of the most famous examples of an academy getting a decision wrong, yet Clement does not see youth development as an exact science.
“There's lots of variables involved.”
Those variables include physical development, mentality, opportunity, coaching, timing and circumstance. A teenager can look extraordinary at 16 and struggle at 20. Another can be overlooked at 14 and become exceptional later.
Rice's development proves the point. Released by Chelsea, he moved across London, was given time at West Ham and eventually became an England regular before moving to Arsenal.
Kakuta's career became something entirely different from the one imagined for him at 16. But it was still a substantial career: 17 years as a professional, international football and a final World Cup appearance before retirement.
For Clement, putting the two stories together illustrates the uncomfortable truth about developing young players.
“There's not one way of doing it.”
The ability to identify talent matters. So does developing it. But neither guarantees what comes next.
One was the wonderkid who did not become the superstar everyone expected. The other was the teenager Chelsea decided could leave. Both came through the same system. Both demonstrate the same lesson.
You can coach young players. You can nurture them. You can make educated decisions about them. But you can never know for certain what they will become.