Ex-Chelsea goalkeeper Nicolas Ti? has quit football at the age of 24 to join the French army.

The former shotstopper represented Chelsea for three years after moving to west London in 2017.

Ti? featured in the Blues? various academy teams and lined up in the club?s Premier League 2 fixtures while lining up in the UEFA Youth League and Under-18 Premier League.

He was unable to make the breakthrough to the first team ahead of first-choice stoppers at the time, Thibaut Courtois and Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Born in Lille, Ti? earned a call up to the Ivory Coast squad in 2018 but withdrew after picking up an injury. He was later selected to the Ivory Coast squad for the 2020 Olympics.

Ti? left Chelsea in 2020 to sign for Portuguese side Vitoria Guimar?es but after struggling to cement himself as the club?s No.1, he chose to call time on his career to pursue a new venture in the army.

?I?ve had some good tests and I?ve got the regiment I asked for,? Tie told Ouest France.

?I?m ready, I?m training every day for this.?

Asked why he decided to turn his back on professional football, Ti? said: ?I lost my taste for football.

?I?m athletic, I didn?t see myself doing an office job. I always liked military careers, so I said to myself: ?Why not join the army?'

?My stepfather is a paratrooper in Ivory Coast. I used to go to the barracks to observe, it inspired me.?

Ti? joined the French Army?s First Parachute Hussar Regiment on April 1 and admits he is ready for anything.

And that means serving in war-torn Ukraine if he had to.

?I don?t do politics,? he said. ?I have committed to treating the problem at the source. If the OPEX (external operation) in Ukraine is launched, let?s go. It doesn?t scare me.?

Reflecting on his time at Stamford Bridge, Ti? admits that breaking into the first-team football was impossible.

And it was made all the more difficult after watching friends he played with at France?s national football centre Clairefontaine, making their first-team debuts in Ligue 1.

?There, I was always treated like the club?s kid,? he said of his spell at Chelsea. ?I was upgraded in every category, from U13 to Premier League 2.

?But I saw all my friends from Clairefontaine, Sofiane Diop, Beno?t Badiashile, and Lorenz Assignon making their Ligue 1 debuts, which made me want to try my hand at that level.

?I didn?t want to be that player who was loaned out for a few months to Championship clubs.? (talkSPORT: Text, Excluding Headline)

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