Willian has played in Europe for 11 years

Chelsea and Brazil winger Willian spoke to Chelsea’s officcial website on completing 5 years with the club and spoke about the differences between Brazilian and European football. Willian has played 11 years in Europe.

He joined Chelsea in 2013 from Russian club Anzhi Makachkala on a transfer fee of £30 million. Willian has played 241 matches for the club across all competitions so far. He has scored 44 goals and has provided 40 assists so far. This season, Willian has featured in all of Chelsea’s matches. He started in three of Chelsea’s four Premier League matches.

Willian said, “The football in Brazil is very different from the football here. Football here is more aggressive, more fast. There in Brazil it is more slow, you have more space, you have time to think.

Here sometimes people don’t have time to think because always you are under pressure, so I think it is very difficult to adapt in Europe. At the same time it was good for me, I adapted well in this 11 years in Europe so I am very happy with my career.I think I am a bit European now as well because it is a lot of different culture and I am very happy because I learnt a lot from that. I was in Ukraine and six months in Russia so with five years here as well, it has been good for me.

Willian also said that joining Chelsea from another European club helped him a lot. He said, “For sure it helped that I was a bit older when I came to the Premier League. No doubts about that because I had more experience, I learned a lot and it was good for me to come here. It made it much easier to play in England. I think if I came direct from Brazil it would be more difficult to adapt but I came from Ukraine and I was able to adapt.”

Willian made a substitute appearance in Brazil’s friendly against USA yesterday. Brazil won the match 2-0 thanks to goals from Roberto Firmino and Neymar.

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