Barcelona’s director, Deco, has explained why the club chose not to sign Willian Estevao before he joined Chelsea.
The young Brazilian has been doing really well since moving to Stamford Bridge in the summer, and people across Europe are talking about how great he is.
Before Estevao joined Chelsea from Palmeiras, the young player had already attracted attention from Barcelona and he even said he hoped to sign with them.
Deco has now shed light on why their interest decreased, explaining that the rise of Lamine Yamal and the similarities between the two players made them decide to move away from Estevao.
“There are several reasons. Right now, during this part of building the team, we already have a player who plays in the same position and has similar traits called Lamine Yamal. It’s obvious. Maybe if Estevao was a right-footed player on the other wing, that could have worked… but that wasn’t the situation.
“He’s a player who is quite like Lamine, but with some different traits. Lamine and Estevao are both really good players, but back then, that wasn’t the right decision,” he said, via tribuna.com.
“It wasn’t about the quality of the player, but about Barça needing to strengthen their team at that time.”
Chelsea overcame strong competition from Bayern Munich to bring in the winger, who has since become a key player for the Brazil national team.
They gave Palmeiras £29 million upfront, and they also plan to pay an extra £26 million based on how well the player performs. Estevao has scored six goals for the Blues this season, including one against Barcelona.
