This crazy Estevao story shows just how good he was as a youngster | OneFootball

There has been plenty of good stuff written about Estevao Willian since his move to Chelsea – and indeed in the year of build up to it.

But we’re not sure we’ve seen anything as good as this piece in the Daily Telegraph from Caio Carrieri, which goes back to his time growing up in Brazil – which really wasn’t very long ago.

Estevao benched to avoid unfairness

Estevao as a kid playing in Brazil.

“He was so tiny the ball looked bigger than him,” one of Estevao’s first coaches said.

“But when he touched it, you could tell immediately that this was something special. He was born with it. From the first warm-up, his ball control, his balance, and his finishing. All different. A rare jewel.”

Before long he was playing in local youth tournaments, and parents would beg his coach Serginho to take the youngster off to make the games fairer:

“Parents of boys on the other teams would shout from the stands, ‘Take him off, Serginho! Playing Estêvão is cheating, it’s not fair!’”

Serginho had to balance Estevao’s desire to be top scorer with keeping the games competitive. He would let him score a couple, then take him off.

Enzo Maresca has been slowly working the winger into his team, and while we don’t expect him to start today, he should feature as a sub without doubt later in the game. Before long, it feels like Premier League defenders might be complaining about unfairness just like those kids in his youth.

In other news…

Wesley Fofana has been given 300 hours of community service after filmed driving in a dangerous way earlier this year.

Tony Dorigo has been speaking in glowing terms about one player who won’t be featuring in today’s game – Cole Palmer remains injured, and boy do we miss him.