Ex-Chelsea and Arsenal player Willian wants to become a consultant

Might want to play until 40

Willian already has clear ideas for the time after his professional career. “I want to be a football consultant,” revealed the 34-year-old newcomer to Fulham FC in a detailed interview “The Athletic”. “I started studying, but slowly. I can’t do much now because I’m still playing. But I’m learning, and when I’m done I’ll deal with it.”

He still has at least two or three years in the tank. “How much longer can I play? Maybe until I’m 39 or 40. I look from year to year. It’s difficult to play in the Premier League until you’re 40. But I see Thiago Silva (Chelsea professional; ed.). He’s 38. He plays well, he’s an inspiration to me. We’re close and we’ll be hanging out in London now that I’m back,” Willian said.

The offensive player switched to the “Cottagers” on Deadline Day after he had previously terminated his contract with the Brazilian first division club Corinthians São Paulo. Fulham are the third London club in Willian’s career. The professional played a total of 261 Premier League games, scoring 38 goals and providing 45 assists. “I have gained a lot of experience that I can take with me to my next job. It’s difficult for young players and I want to help them. I want to give them advice and explain what to do in certain situations.”

The 70-time Seleção international joined city rivals Arsenal on a free transfer in 2020 after seven years at Chelsea. Just one season later, Willian was keen to return to his youth club Corinthians and canceled his contract with the Gunners, which ran until 2023. According to Sky Sports, he waived a severance package and thus £20.5m (€24m today) that he would have received in his remaining two years at Arsenal. “Any other player in my situation would have stayed until the end of the contract and continued to collect money. But I’m not like that. Money is not the most important thing in the world. I have to feel good, I have to be motivated to go to training. That wasn’t the case, so I decided to leave,” affirmed Willian.

People only looked at goals and assists. They didn’t look at what I do for the team

“A lot of people said to me, ‘Are you crazy?! You have to stay, you can’t lose this money.’ Many have told me that, even people from Brazil. They said: ‘Don’t come, don’t come, you have to stay! You are crazy!’. But I wanted to try, play for Corinthians, the club I grew up with. That’s why I left. I was happy with my decision.” The attacker also justified his unhappy time at Arsenal with the lack of fans as a result of the corona pandemic.

Unhappy with his level of goal involvement in Brazil, Willian said his performances were good, citing some injuries and adjustment problems. “There were a lot of games, every three days. I didn’t have time to rest. Also, the pitches weren’t the best, not like here. I’ve had some difficult moments but when it came to helping the team and doing what I normally do, I was the same Willian I was in the Premier League. But there people only looked at goals and assists. They didn’t look at what I was doing for the team,” complained the offensive man, who was attacked on social media after a poor performance. “From then on I thought about leaving Corinthians and going back to England.” London is his home. “It’s the place I like to be the most. I have everything here,” Willian said.

Willian was supposed to go to Tottenham as a Bale replacement – choice for Chelsea

He considers voting in 2013 for Chelsea and against Tottenham, who once let too much time wasted, to be the best decision of his career. “I was in London for two weeks waiting for Tottenham to make a decision because they were in a situation where Gareth Bale was about to leave them and join Real Madrid. Liverpool were also interested. I wasn’t sure about Chelsea. They had expressed an interest but it wasn’t very specific at first.” Bale ended up going to Los Blancos for the then-record fee of €101m but Willian now had other thoughts on his mind than Tottenham.

“Chelsea came on the day I was about to sign my contract with Spurs. I was at Tottenham’s training ground to sign the contract when the call came. My agent said to me, ‘Chelsea just called me and wants you.’ I said: ‘Okay, I want to go there!’ Then I left the training ground and went back to the hotel. It was a difficult situation because I had more or less promised to go to Spurs. But in my mind there was only Chelsea. When the contract between Anzhi (his club in Russia at the time; ed.) and Chelsea came about, all I wanted to do was go there. It was the best decision of my career.”

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