Chelsea appear to have hit a home run with the capture of Estêvão, although it wasn’t guaranteed that the Blues would actually end up winning the battle for his signature with Paris Saint-Germain previously interested.
Estêvão signed with Chelsea in the summer 2024, a £51 million ($67.5 million) deal that locked in a future transfer from Palmeiras once he turned 18. It bore similarities to Real Madrid’s recruitment of Vinicius Junior and Endrick, and underlined a significant strand of the Premier League club’s recruitment strategy trained on identifying unpolished potential in South America.
Other young talents plucked directly from Brazil hadn’t previously justified the hype—think Deivid Washington, Ângelo Gabriel. But Estêvão, for not yet being a regular starter domestically, has managed six goals and assists so far, including three goals in his last three Champions League games.
For Brazil, the 18-year-old has found the net five times in six senior appearance this season and looks as though he could be a breakout star at next summer’s World Cup.
But everything had the potential to be very different for him, as Fabrizio Romano has explained.
While Barcelona were heavily linked at various points and have a close relationship with the player’s representative, Andre Cury, any realistic opportunity to make that move was only a “long time ago”. Instead, the competition for Chelsea came from PSG, holding “advanced conversations” but pulling due to feeling the demands from Palmeiras were too expensive.
Chelsea were conversely happy to commit to that money, split into £29 million guaranteed and the rest of the fee made up of performance-related add-ons. The simple fact is that if those extras get triggered, it means that Estêvão is doing well and ultimately justifying the price tag.
