Willian

Senior officials at Chelsea have been expressing excitement about Estevao’s arrival since they agreed his signature more than a year before his eventual move to England.

Fittingly, Estevao scored a brilliant goal from a tight angle against Chelsea in a losing cause on his final appearance for Palmeiras this summer.

He left the Sao Paulo-based club with 27 goals and 15 assists in 83 games.

After that match, he was seen mingling with his future team-mates, including England playmaker Palmer, in what appeared to be a moment of respect between peers.

That game was perhaps an English audience’s first glimpse of Estevao, but Brazilian football experts have long tipped him for the top.

He was the first player under 18 to have 20 goal involvements in a single season in Brazil’s Serie A (12 goals and eight assists), breaking a record set by Neymar.

In the Club World Cup, he won ‘superior player of the match’ twice and, perhaps fittingly, impressed against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, having earned the nickname Messinho – ‘Little Messi’ – in Brazil.

It felt like a coup from Chelsea to beat some of Europe’s leading clubs, including Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, to Estevao’s signature.

He chose Chelsea due to his belief in their vision and the promise of a significant role in his first season, with his sights set on playing for Brazil at the 2026 World Cup.

Estevao consulted former Chelsea defender Thiago Silva before choosing Chelsea in 2024.

The Blues had planned to ease him in slowly, but Palmer’s injury and Estevao’s brilliance have led him to feature in every match – except the draw with Brentford which he missed because of illness.

Palmer hopes to return from a recurring groin problem after the international break.

But even in the star attacker’s absence, Estevao appears ready to deliver more big moments for Chelsea.

Abel Ferreira hesitated for a second, insisted he wouldn’t say what he had in his mind, but then – in a rare moment of full disclosure when it comes to young talents – he opened up.

“This player is different from everything I’ve ever seen,” the Palmeiras coach said in a press conference in May 2024, following a 2-1 win over Botafogo-SP in the Brazilian Cup.

The two-time Libertadores champion is not particularly known for letting himself get carried away too easily, especially in front of the cameras. But that night, he allowed himself to speak freely because he couldn’t believe his eyes – then 17-year-old Estevao had just scored the winner in the final minutes and put on a spectacular show once more.

Such is the impact the left-footed winger had the season before last that Ferreira tried, in vain, to convince the club board not to sell him. That was too late, though.

Chelsea beat the competition of the likes of Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain and Manchester City to sign the Palmeiras wonderkid in a deal that could eventually be worth £52m and that will see him arrive at Stamford Bridge after Fifa’s new Club World Cup in July 2025.

Other Brazilian teenagers such as Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo left for Europe at the same age for huge fees. They’ve both proved themselves already on the big stages since then. But none of them were as hyped as Estevao when they first moved abroad.

There’s a feeling in Brazil that the boy from the countryside of Sao Paulo may be something else, the kind of player that comes along once a decade and seems destined to the very top.

“Estevao is the best player to have emerged from Brazilian football since Neymar. You watch him and you fall in love,” the head of Palmeiras’ academy, Joao Paulo Sampaio, told BBC Sport.

“He already impresses with his technique but, like Neymar at this same point in his career, he has not yet matured physically and is not as strong as Endrick, so he could still develop a lot. That’s what amazes everyone and makes them think that he will reach a much higher level.”

Chelsea may have struck gold with their new signing.