Chelsea welcome Barcelona to west London next week in a crucial Champions League fixture with the fitness of Cole Palmer one of the main talking points going into the European match
Former Chelsea defender Frank Lebouef believes Estevao Willian can announce himself to the world next week when the Blues take on Barcelona in the Champions League.
The 18-year-old has been a revelation since making the switch from Palmeiras to Chelsea in the summer transfer window with eight goals to his name already for club and country. Enzo Maresca, though, has been cautious with how he has used Estevao up until this point, with the Blues head coach wary of the teenager’s situation; being so young and moving to a new country.
For Chelsea, Estevao has made 16 appearances in all competitions, but only seven of them have been starts, despite his impressive form. Supporters want to see more of the Brazil international, but Maresca is doing his best to ease the pressure on someone the club believe is a generational talent.
Leboeuf, while excited by what he has witnessed from Estevao so far, believes Maresca is doing the right thing by holding the Brazilian teenager back a bit.
When asked by OLBG if Estevao can win the Ballon d’Or, Leboeuf said: “On the Ballon d’Or, I don’t care because that’s not something that I’m very fond of because that’s an individual award in a collective game so it doesn’t really mean anything but it’s what I should call it MVP and that’s okay because people they pay for tickets to see players like Estevao, that’s for sure.
“The guy is gifted like crazy. He sweats football. It’s amazing. But you have to finish the building first. You have to be precise.
“I think Enzo Maresca is right in a way to protect him, don’t put him in there because he’s still a little bit too young. When he comes on, he makes a difference. So little by little, it’s fine.
“Right now we live in a world where everything has to be now, not tomorrow but now. So we have a star so we want to see it and we want to burn him and after he goes we get somebody else.
“I mean when I talk about Gianfranco Zola, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo [R9], it took a long time to make sure those players were ready and the media at the time were going slower in their definitions of who is a star or not.
“Nowadays it works differently but I am quite okay with what Maresca is doing with Estevao. As long as Estevao stays 10 years and gives us many titles, fans will be happy, I’m happy too.”
Chelsea welcome Barcelona to Stamford Bridge on November 25 in their fifth Champions League fixture of the campaign. Whenever Barca come to town, it is always a huge occasion, but this perhaps more so for the Blues, who are on seven points from their opening four league phase matches.
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Maresca is targeting a place in the top eight to secure qualification for the knockout stages of Europe’s elite competition – putting more emphasis on achieving a positive result against Barca. Estevao could well be the key in that, even with Chelsea hoping Cole Palmer will be able to return from his persistent groin injury for next week’s clash.
“Yeah, that would be nice to see Estevao starring,” Leboeuf added. “I remember I saw the Barcelona game against Paris Saint-Germain and everybody was going to see what Lamine Yamal is capable of doing.
“And we saw one player, Nuno Mendes, and Nuno Mendes shining in that game and showed his power. And that is one of the best left-backs in the world. And that would be nice to see Estevao shining against Barcelona and showing the world that, wow, that guy’s different dimension. So that would be nice, but I’m not asking for anything.
“I don’t want to put him under any pressure. I know, I know he’s capable of it. Now, he is still very young. What he’s going to do, I don’t know, football is about always doing good things at the right time. It doesn’t matter if you score 10 goals against teams that nobody saw or remember and the goals that you scored.
“But if you score in the Champions League against Barcelona, everybody is going to see and talk about it.”
