Carlo Ancelotti sends message to Enzo Maresca over £51m Chelsea signing

Brazil manager Carlo Ancelotti says Chelsea are ‘really lucky’ to have ‘very talented’ Estevao Willian at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea signed 18-year-old winger Estevao from Brazilian club Palmeiras over the summer in a deal worth an initial £29m.

Potential add-ons could take the overall cost of the transfer above £50m and that appears likely given the promising start to his Chelsea career.

Despite often starting from the bench, Estevao has already contributed four goals to help the Blues climb into the Champions League places.

Estevao has been just as influential in the early stages of his international career, scoring his fourth goal in his 10th appearance for Brazil in Saturday’s friendly win over Senegal.

Ancelotti, who left Real Madrid in the summer to take over the Brazil national team, heaped praise on Estevao after the friendly, describing him as ‘incredible’.

‘Estevao has incredible amount of talent,’ Ancelotti said in his post-match press conference. ‘It’s a surprise this level at his age.

‘He’s good at finishing, has a lot of magic… and he works very hard. I can say this: with Estevao, Brazil have a guaranteed future.

‘He’s a very talented player. He is able to show every game, in Chelsea too, and he doesn’t need a lot of minutes to show his quality.

‘He can play five minutes and he can show his quality. I think the Brazil national team is really lucky to have him, and also Chelsea.’

Estevao scored Brazil’s opening goal against Senegal on Saturday before Manchester United midfielder Casemiro doubled their lead.

Brazil, who have already qualified for next summer’s World Cup, play Tunisia in another friendly on Tuesday.

Given Estevao’s form for club and country, some Chelsea fans want him to get even more game-time for the Blues.

Estevao was only on the bench for Chelsea’s last Premier League game against Wolves, for example, before coming on for the final 30 minutes.

‘His talent is top,’ Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said after the Wolves win. ‘Again, we are trying to help him adapt and give him the right minutes, and he’s doing fantastic.

‘He will be for this club, in the next five or ten years, a top, top player.’

Asked if it was proving difficult to stop the hype surrounding Estevao, Maresca added: ‘Absolutely, yes.

‘I said already twice the reason why fans pay tickets is because they want to see players like Estevao and like Cole [Palmer] because people are happy when they are on the pitch.

‘The only difference is Estevao arrived from Brazil, he needs to adapt a little bit. Slowly, slowly, he’s going to start games for us in the future.

‘I was very worried before this game because they are the worst games, they are tricky games because everyone is thinking it’s going to be easy.

‘I can understand first half people were not happy because we didn’t score, not because of the performance, to be honest.

‘And then when Estevao was on the pitch the energy raised because people loved that kind of player, so we are happy he can help the team and the fans can be happy.’

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