Estevao Willian makes immediate Chelsea impact in first training session after £51m transfer

Estevao Willian has made a winning start to life at Chelsea after being part of the team that came out on top in his first training session.

The teenager finally arrived at Cobham this week, over a year on from the Blues agreeing a deal with Palmeiras that could rise as high as £51million. A month after playing his final match for the Brazilian club against Chelsea in the Club World Cup quarter-finals, Estevao began work with his new teammates.

He also appears to have tasted immediate success in these new surroundings. A photo from day two of pre-season suggests as much.

Dario Essugo, Estevao, Marc Cucurella, Joao Pedro, Josh Acheampong, Reece James and Robert Sanchez posed for a team photo while on the pitches. The former shared that on his Instagram story, alongside a first-place medal emoji, which indicates they were successful as a group during the session.

Pedro also shared a photo of himself and Estevao from the session on his story, captioning the image: "Welcome to the World Champions". That is also the same phrase used by the club when announcing his arrival.

He spoke to the club on that first day. "I am very happy, it feels very rewarding to represent Chelsea, one of the biggest clubs in the world," the Brazil international said. "I am very happy, and I hope to help the team in the best way possible.

"I had almost a year and a half to wait until I arrived here. But it has been a year and a half that I have worked hard and have done my best to get here in the best shape possible.

"I am very, very excited. It is a new experience in my life, a new stage. I look forward to it and hope it will go as well as possible."

During his post-match press conference following Chelsea's clash with Palmeiras at the Club World Cup, Enzo Maresca was enthusiastic about the Brazilian's arrival. He said: "Estevao, I spoke with him for the first time after the game. I told him that it’s been the perfect night because we won, he scored. So it’s been perfect for us and for him."

When asked if Estevao is ready for the Premier League, the Chelsea boss added: "Yes. Very good, very good. You can see that he’s a huge talent. You can see that he’s a fantastic player.

"And the only thing for me is when you come from South America or in general from the other part of the world, Europe, you need to adapt. So, we’re going to help him to adapt.

"First of all, to be happy, to continue to enjoy football. And we don’t have any doubt because he’s so good that he’s going to be a very important player for Chelsea."

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