Chelsea have signed all sorts of young players in the last couple of years, and they all face different challenges in getting to the top and adapting to the pressures (both personal and professional) of being a top level Premier League footballer at such a young age.
It’s something Enzo Maresca discussed recently, having come to England himself as an 18 year old. In his chat with Sky Sports, summer signing Pedro Neto spoke about his unique journey to the top.
Neto is 24, so he’s not as young as some of the other new arrivals. But there’s also more to it than that. As he explained in his interview with Sky Sports ahead of the Arsenal game at the weekend, his career leading up to his Chelsea move showed him all sorts of variety and different challenges which have made this final switch much easier to deal with.
You can see the winger speaking in the clip embedded here:
Neto’s diverse youth prepares him for big moves
Growing up in the small town of Viana do Castelo in the north of Portugal, Neto first moved to Braga. As he explains, this was already a big step up for a young kid. After that, at 17, he moved to Lazio in Italy, an even bigger change.
“I was innocent” he says of his time there, as he was suddenly forced to become aware of the big wide world.
Despite that move not going well, the winger wasn’t put off. He went directly from Rome to Wolves as a 19 year old, where he established himself as a Premier League player and never looked back. This diverse journey to the top has prepared him well for each step up, and he’s now starting to blossom as a Chelsea player.
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