{"id":620780,"date":"2023-01-04T04:15:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T09:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=620780"},"modified":"2023-01-04T04:15:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T09:15:52","slug":"juninho-chelsea-wonderkid-andrey-santos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/01\/04\/juninho-chelsea-wonderkid-andrey-santos\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Legend Juninho Raves Over Incoming \u00a311 Million Chelsea Wonderkid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Brazil international Juninho has described Andrey Santos as \u201ca beast\u201d, with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1609663196238946304\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a> reporting that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/premier-league\/chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea<\/a> have completed the signing of the 18-year-old wonderkid.<\/p>\n<p>While the Blues are yet to formally confirm the transfer, Romano has reported that the Brazilian midfielder is set to join for just over <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1609485078681341952\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a311 million<\/a> (\u20ac12.5 million).<\/p>\n<p>Santos will reportedly join Chelsea from Brazilian side Vasco da Gama, where he debuted at just 16 years old. His eight goals and eight assists last season were crucial in helping the team get promoted from Brazil\u2019s Serie B.<\/p>\n<p>He is regarded as one of Brazil\u2019s most exciting talents, with Juninho speaking highly of him in the summer of 2022.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/01\/02\/chelsea-midfielder-jorginho-receives-new-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">\u2018We\u2019ve Received a Proposal\u2019: Chelsea Fans Get Update on \u2018World Class\u2019 Star Amid Napoli Links<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Juninho: Santos Will Be \u201cMuch Better\u201d Than Me<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3>Chelsea Wonderkid Receives Fantastic Praise<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Juninho Pernambucano on Chelsea\u2019s new signing Andrey Santos: \u201cI&#8217;ve never seen a player, at 18, as ready as he is\u201d, he said in July. \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhysically, he&#8217;s a beast, technically he&#8217;s on a high level. He&#8217;s not going to be better than me, he&#8217;s going to be much better than me\u201d. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/p02Nhsw3k0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/p02Nhsw3k0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1609663196238946304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Speaking in July last year, former Vasco da Gama player Juninho heaped praise onto Santos who had just turned 18.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a player, at 18, as ready as he is,\u201d Juninho said. \u201cPhysically, he\u2019s a beast, technically he\u2019s on a high level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not going to be better than me, he\u2019s going to be much better than me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/01\/02\/manchester-united-want-new-striker-signing-in-january\/\" target=\"_self\">Fabrizio Romano Gives Manchester United\u2019s Transfer Priority for January Which Fans Will Love<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Juninho made 40 appearances for the Brazilian national team between 1999 and 2006. He scored six goals at international level, and 75 at Olympique Lyonnais where he spent eight years as a player. He is often credited with being the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fourfourtwo.com\/features\/best-free-kick-taker-ever-juninho-pernambucano-how-he-got-so-good\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">greatest free-kick taker<\/a> of all time.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Santos the Latest Young Star To Join Chelsea\u2019s Ranks<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Juninho&#8217;s comments will come as music to the ears of Chelsea fans, with Todd Boehly and the club continuing to sign some of the world&#8217;s\u00a0best young talents.<\/p>\n<p>Carney Chuckwuemeka joined from Aston Villa in the summer, along with Omari Hutchinson from Arsenal, Cesare Casadei from Inter Milan, Gabriel Slonina from MLS team Chicago Fire, and Wesley Fofana from Leicester City.<\/p>\n<p>Fofana is the oldest signing out of that group, having just turned 22 last month. Chuckwuemeka, Hutchinson, Casadei and Slonina were no older than 19 when they signed, and have all been recruited with a long-term project in mind.<\/p>\n<p>It is a model that Chelsea have continued to follow in January. They have confirmed the signing of 20-year-old David Datro Fofana from Norwegian side Molde, while Santos and 21-year-old Monaco centre back <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/01\/01\/here-we-go-benoit-badiashile-chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Beno\u00eet Badiashile<\/a> are expected to sign this month as well.<\/p>\n<p>It is unlikely that they will be the last signings this window either, with Chelsea continuing to push for 21-year-old World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez. However, signing the Argentinian will not be easy, with Benfica <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1608738157045981185\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">telling<\/a> Chelsea they must meet his \u00a3105 million (\u20ac120 million) release clause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Brazil international Juninho has described Andrey Santos as \u201ca beast\u201d, with Fabrizio Romano reporting that Chelsea have completed the signing of the 18-year-old wonderkid. While the Blues are yet to formally confirm the transfer, Romano has reported that the Brazilian midfielder is set to join for just over \u00a311 million (\u20ac12.5 million). Santos will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4374,"featured_media":620861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,30,28],"tags":[9622,1407,4259],"class_list":["post-620780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-chelsea","category-news","category-transfers","tag-andrey-santos","tag-chelsea-transfers","tag-fabrizio-romano"],"modified_by":"Declan Wiseman, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}