Expert Reveals Why PSG Missed Out on Brazilian Wonderkid as Chelsea Move Nears | OneFootball

Earlier this year, Estevão Willian signed with Chelsea, but before committing to the Blues, Paris Saint-Germain was in on the teenager.

According to Diario AS, Willian’s transfer fee is expected to surpass that of former PSG star Neymar Jr. FC Barcelona paid €64 million to sign Neymar from Santos. In comparison, Chelsea has reportedly offered €65 million, the asking price set by Palmeiras for Brazil’s newest rising star.

With the latest Brazilian wonderkid making waves with Palmerias this season before his anticipated move to London, one expert looks back at why the Parisians didn’t land the player.

In his latest Daily Briefing column for CaughtOffside, CBS Sports reporter and PSG expert Jonathan Johnson cited two reasons why the capital club opted against landing the youngster despite its long history with Brazilian talent.

“Although Estevao is a highly regarded talent, it wasn’t really a position that PSG desperately needed to strengthen at that time, and so they focused on defence and midfield. Beraldo can play centre-back or left-back, so his versatility is useful for PSG, while Moscardo was also earning rave reviews while PSG needed an extra body in central midfield,” Johnson wrote. “Obviously now PSG also have Joao Neves in that position, while Moscardo has gone out on loan to Rennes for this season.

“Another key reason PSG ended up dropping out of the Estevao deal was that Luis Campos, when he was in Brazil, felt they were being priced out of the move by Palmeiras. So instead he focused on getting the deals done for Beraldo and Moscardo, even though there was some pretty significant competition for those two as well. Ultimately, PSG didn’t try to go back in for Estevao once those other two deals were tied up.”

It will be interesting to see if Chelsea decide to insert Willian into their squad or lend him to Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg so he can get his feet wet in European football.