A star was born on Saturday night at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea had been knocking on the door, trying to find a winner against the defending champions. Jamie Gittens came close. Estêvão came closer. Enzo
Fernández hit the post. It looked like we would have to settle for a draw. That would’ve been okay, especially given the injuries. But not great.
And then, in a move that looked to have run into a dead end, Enzo smuggled a ball through to Marc Cucurella, who had made a run but did not get the ball initially. He checked back, managed to stay onside, turned, burst towards the byline, and put in a peach of a low cross, splitting goalkeeper and defenders. At the far post, Estêvão got a step on his marker, and on the slide, finished it off.
The clock read 95 minutes and two seconds.
Bedlam. Absolute scenes.
We didn’t have to wait long for the final whistle, to kick off another explosion of emotion. This is what football’s all about!
“Oh wow. I’m just so, so happy. I’m grateful to God, to my family, to all my team-mates, to the coaching staff and to everyone else at the club who has helped me with my football here It’s an amazing feeling to score my first Premier League goal and in such a big game, I’m just so happy.”
Of course, Estêvão was already a star. Back home, he was the shining light for Palmeiras, and already a senior Brazil international at age 18. But he’s now come to a bigger stage. And he’s now stepped onto that stage, and he’s delivered on that stage. That’s what you have to do every time you reach that bigger stage, if you want to be among the greatest. He’s delivered once. The first of many.
“I feel great right now and it’s so good that the manager has so much confidence in me. When I went on, he told me to just play my own game and to try and make an impact. He told me to try and score or create a goal and thankfully I managed to do that.”
“Things at Chelsea have gone a lot better so far than I maybe imagined,’ he stated. ‘I feel so good in training every day and I enjoy every moment. I have fantastic team-mates and coaching staff around me that help me each day, and it’s very helpful that I have my family with me and they’ve helped me really settle into life in England and the Premier League.
“I couldn’t be happier!”
-Estêvão; source: Chelsea FC
Estêvão certainly has the potential to be one of the greatest. He’s only just getting started. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to have front row seats to it all.
