Earlier this year, Estevão Willian signed with Chelsea, but before committing to the Blues, Paris Saint-Germain were interested in the teenager.
According to the newspaper ASWillian’s transfer fee is expected to surpass that of former PSG star Neymar Jr. Barcelona paid €64 million to sign Neymar from Santos. In comparison, Chelsea reportedly offered €65 million, the asking price Palmeiras asked for Brazil’s new rising star.
As Brazil’s latest prodigy makes waves with Palmerias this season ahead of his expected move to London, one expert looks back at why the Parisians failed to sign the player.
In his latest Daily Briefing column for CaughtOffsideCBS Sports journalist and PSG expert Jonathan Johnson cited two reasons why the capital club chose not to sign the youngster despite their long history with Brazilian talent.
“Although Estevao is a highly regarded talent, it was not Really “PSG were desperate to strengthen their position at the time, and so focused on defence and midfield. Beraldo can play centre-back or left-back, so his versatility is useful for PSG, while Moscardo was also receiving rave reviews as PSG needed an extra player in central midfield,” Johnson wrote. “Obviously, PSG now have Joao Neves in that position, while Moscardo has been loaned to Rennes for this season.
“Another major reason why PSG ended up abandoning the Estevao transfer was that Luis Campos, when he was in Brazil, felt that Palmeiras couldn’t do it. So he focused on closing deals for Beraldo and Moscardo, even though there was quite a bit of competition for those two as well. In the end, PSG didn’t try to go back on Estevao once those other two deals were closed.”
It will be interesting to see whether Chelsea decide to bring Willian into their squad or loan him out to Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg so he can get a taste of European football.
