A Brazilian is the centre of a huge transfer talking point over at Stamford Bridge at the moment and, surprisingly, his name isn’t Neymar; Chelsea having agreed a pre-contract deal with Sao Paulo’s Lucas Piazon. Piazon, however, cannot join the London outfit until he turns eighteen years old in January of 2012; but despite the wait this hasn’t stopped the inner circles of Chelsea getting excited about their new starlet.
Yet to play for Sao Paulo, Piazon is currently with the Brazil Under-17 side at the South American Championship in Ecuador, like many promising youngsters from the Samba region, the Brazilian media wasted no time in bestowing Piazon with the title of ‘one of the hottest prospects around’, but when comparisons are drawn with fellow countryman Kaka, these statements begin to carry some substance. Like Kaka, Lucas Piazon will have come through the Sao Paulo ranks before heading to Europe, yet unlike Real Madrid’s midfield maestro, Piazon can only be described as an ‘out and out striker’, especially when you see stats that saw him finish top scorer in the Under 15’s South American Championships with 10 goals, double that of his nearest rival.
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Before Chelsea moved to finalise the deal, the Brazilian had been heavily linked with Serie A’s fallen giants Juventus; and fellow English sides Manchester United and Arsenal were also showing signs of interest after their respective scouts were impressed with Piazon in a recent Nike Youth Cup in Manchester, where he was voted Player of the Tournament. Still, with a strong Brazilian contingency of David Luiz, Alex and Ramires at Stamford Bridge already, Piazon was swayed to sign for the West London titans.
The fee is believed to be in the region of £8-10 million, a resounding figure for someone so young, but one that doesn’t seem so outlandish when you think of Theo Walcott’s transfer to Arsenal and the sums of money being speculated that it will cost the Premier League ‘big boys’ to prize away the likes of Connor Wickham and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Ipswich and Southampton respectively.
Should Piazon progress along the same road to victory as former Sao Paulo players Juninho, Juliano Belletti and Kaka it will mean that not only are Chelsea fans in for a treat, but so to is the world of football.
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