Neymar has fired a message to Chelsea’s 17-year-old wonderkid Estêvão Willian after he broke his 15-year long record in the Brazilian Serie A.
Chelsea completed a deal for the Palmeiras teenager in June and he will officially move to west London on July 1, 2025 once his 18th birthday has passed.
He has been in fine form out in South America ahead of his switch to England and Estêvão has now received praise from fellow Brazilian footballer Neymar.
Estêvão reached 18 goal contributions this season over the weekend, which is a new record in the Brazilian top-flight across a single campaign for a player under the age of 18.
Football superstar Neymar held the previous record with 16 – which he did with childhood club Santos back in 2009.
‘Congratulations for the broken record,’ Neymar posted on his Instagram account about Chelsea youngster Estêvão.
‘May you continue to shine and enchant everyone with your soccer. Fly.’
Estêvão recently revealed that Cole Palmer sent him a message on social media the day after he signed for Chelsea, with the Englishman labelling him as a ‘star’.
Speaking to The Guardian, Estêvão said: ‘When I signed for Chelsea, the next day I scored a goal and celebrated like Palmers.
His celebration was trendy, very popular. We talked on social media, I tagged him on Instagram.
‘He called me a star, I said he’s a star too. He said we’re going to do a lot of great things together for Chelsea.’
Chelsea have reportedly paid a €34m (£28.5m) fee to land Estêvão and could end up splashing out another €23m (£19.3m) in performances-based incentives.
Estêvão earned his first caps for the Brazil first-team this year and looks set for a massive career in the sport.
