Barcelona give Chelsea upper hand in pursuit of Estevao Willian after pulling out of race
Chelsea have been handed a significant lift in their pursuit of Brazilian sensation Estevao Willian after Barcelona decided to abandon the race to sign the highly-rated young talent from Palmeiras.
Estevao has been likened to Lionel Messi for his playing attributes on the pitch, which have garnered interest from many European clubs. The Spanish club were thought to be leading the race to land the forward but have chosen to pull out of the race.
This comes after, as per Spanish news outlet Sport, via Sun, Barcelona already have their own talented star Lamine Yamal and wants to build a perfect environment around La Masia Academy players for the future.
Willian is the same age as Lamine, and both operate from similar positions on the field, but the Catalan giants don’t want to provide competition for the Spain international and develop him at the club smoothly.
This gives Chelsea an upper hand to pursue the 16-year-old, as the Blues have expressed genuine interest in signing Brazilian players since the ownership of Todd Boehly. However, Palmeiras will only listen to offers worth £51 million.
Chelsea shouldn’t make the same mistake they did with Endrick.
And maybe the Blues wouldn’t want to avoid his acquisition, as last time they went against the signing of Endrick, who has joined Real Madrid, as they felt his valuation was too high.
Since the Blues are presently the only team vying for Estevao’s signature, seizing this opportunity to sign him before any other team joins us will be prudent. Barcelona’s decision to withdraw from the race makes sense because they already have a player of such exceptional potential leading them, and they may not look back on their decision considering how highly skilled players have come from their academy.
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We therefore believe that this is a great opportunity for us to recruit Estevao, who has enormous potential and, despite his early age, has drawn comparisons to Messi, which is high praise indeed for a player. If we manage to sign him he will join us when he turns 18 as per the Premier League rule, let’s see how the Blues approach his acquisition.