Earlier this year, Estevão Willian made the move to Chelsea, but before committing to the Blues, Paris Saint-Germain was also in the mix for the teenager.
According to Diario AS, Willian’s transfer fee is expected to exceed that of former PSG star Neymar Jr. Barcelona paid €64 million to sign Neymar from Santos. In comparison, Chelsea has reportedly agreed to meet the €65 million asking price set by Palmeiras for the Brazilian prodigy.
As the young talent continues to impress with Palmeiras this season, Willian has shared his thoughts on choosing Chelsea over other clubs in the race for his signature.
“I decided to join Chelsea because of their plan for the future,” Willian told journalist Thiago Rabelo. “I was very pleased with that. It was the club that believed in me and trusted in my work. I hope I can pay that back.”
Last month, in his Daily Briefing column for CaughtOffside, CBS Sports reporter and PSG expert Jonathan Johnson explained two reasons why the capital club decided against signing the young talent, despite its strong history with Brazilian players.
“Although Estevao is a highly regarded talent, it wasn’t really a position that PSG desperately needed to strengthen at that time, and so they focused on defence and midfield. Beraldo can play centre-back or left-back, so his versatility is useful for PSG, while Moscardo was also earning rave reviews while PSG needed an extra body in central midfield,” Johnson wrote.
“Obviously, now PSG also have Joao Neves in that position, while Moscardo has gone out on loan to Rennes for this season.
“Another key reason PSG ended up dropping out of the Estevao deal was that Luis Campos, when he was in Brazil, felt they were being priced out of the move by Palmeiras. So instead he focused on getting the deals done for Beraldo and Moscardo, even though there was some pretty significant competition for those two as well. Ultimately, PSG didn’t try to go back in for Estevao once those other two deals were tied up.”
It will be interesting to see if Chelsea choose to include Willian in their squad or loan him to Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg to give him some experience in European football.
