Willian is a brother to me.
I was there for over 2 years,
and he was the great signing of Shakhtar at that time.
We've always said that...
"No way I'm going to Ukraine or Russia."
Shakhtar was a really insistent club.
They convinced us to visit the club.
He was kind of shy, kinda kept to himself...
But then he adapted to it, and there were other Brazilians there.
I guess it gave us some reputation. It was a first time win for Shakhtar.
In 2009...
The player with the best assist in the country: Willian.
2010. The greatest foreign player: Willian.
When I left Shakhtar, I was criticized by many people.
I was really criticized in social media.
The ball was loose near the end line and when I stopped,
I felt the posterior tight muscle.
I had never felt something like that.
And then a movie goes through your mind...
"Was I supposed to be here?
What if I'm not making the right choice?"
Things like that come to our mind.
My wife supported me with all her heart.
She said that I should go, that God would honor me.
When I arrived in Ukraine
to sign with Shakhtar,
I was very surprised with the warm weather.
Everyone always told me about the cold in Ukraine.
But I was surprised with the hot weather.
I couldn't believe that it got cold there as well.
'Cause it really gets hot there.
I stayed there for three days
to get to know the city and the club,
the training center, everything.
I couldn't decide whether I should stay or not.
A lot of things went through my mind.
To sign or not to sign...
I was never pressured into signing, neither by Corinthians
nor by my father or my managers.
And we went to Shakhtar,
look into the structure of the club.
And I must say it's as good as any European club,
especially compared to Brazilian clubs, but it's as good as any European club.
Shaktar's chairman gave everything the players could want.
I left Willian to think for himself, and explained the pros and cons to him.
But he was the one who would make the final decision.
Playing in Europe was his dream.
Shakhtar was a window for him to get noticed by other clubs.
So it's a win win situation.
At the decisive moment, my dad said: "What do you think?
Will you sign it? How are you feeling about it?"
He said that he got my back, whatever I decided would be done.
I ended up signing a 5-year contract.
And then...
Everything worked out, thank God.
We've always said that...
"No way I'm going to Ukraine or Russia."
Shakhtar was a really insistent club.
They convinced us to at least visit the club.
They arranged everything for us!
They set up a plane for us... We left São Paulo
in a commercial flight.
We had a layover in Germany
and there was a private jet waiting for us.
I'd never flown in a private jet before.
A private jet with food and everything.
We arrived at the city
and they treated us so nicely!
And it was really hot, as I said before.
I couldn't believe that it got cold there as well.
It was so damn hot!
Of course I had a dream.
Besides playing as a pro,
playing for Corinthians, I wanted to play in Europe.
Of course I wouldn't be going to the biggest club in Europe
or playing in the greatest league,
but the club was in the Champion's League every year.
So that would be a window for me to get noticed.
Maybe a few years later I could sign with a big European club.
For the first few months he was there, I accompanied him.
I stayed there for 3 months.
And then he stayed there by himself,
but I used to visit him every fifteen days or every month.
For the first 5 months I was there alone.
Then my dad came to stay with me.
When I signed the deal I had to go back to Brazil.
I stayed there a week to pack everything,
to say goodbye to Corinthians, to everyone.
And then I flew to Ukraine with my manager.
There was a player who took him under his wings, Brandão.
When Willian was alone there, Brandão always invited him to his place.
For what I gather, he took him under his wings, and he was also single.
He became sort of a big brother to Willian.
Brandão is a retired player.
He helped me tremendously.
He truly welcomed me.
He always invited me to his place, to go out.
I'm very grateful to him for all he's done for me.
He's my good friend to this day.
He always helped me.
There were others too, but he really helped me.
Adapting there was tough.
The language is completely different, the culture is different.
But I became adapted with the help of my team mates,
of other Brazilians who've been living there.
I'm glad there was a translator in the club as well,
so it helped me a lot to do things inside the club and outside as well.
I was helped by a lot of people, a lot of players.
And I adapted quite fast.
Adapting, in this sense, was kinda tough.
Playing in cold weather, when it's snowing.
I had to adapt myself to the field.
The ball sometimes gets faster.
So it was kind of difficult at first,
but after you adapt, you can play easily.
Of course the cold is always tough, your feet freezes,
you don't feel your toes.
But when you adapt, you can overcome all this.
Willian is a brother to me.
I was there for over 2 years,
and he was the great signing of Shakhtar at that time.
Shakhtar invested 20 million dollars in his transfer fee.
He was gradually becoming adapted.
There were other Brazilians there: me, Fernandinho, Brandão,
who was there at that time, Matuzalém...
We already knew how things worked there
and ended up helping him and his family when they got there.
When he arrived, we could see that his technical skills,
his pace, his ability were all superior.
And, of course, every player who goes to Europe has to adapt.
And this happened to Willian, and he got more secure in his skills.
So he fitted in quickly and helped us a lot.
It was okay at Shakhtar.
I was way shier than I am today.
I am more outgoing today, I joke a lot.
Jadson, Fernandinho were always jokesters.
They were the locker room's clowns.
Jadson really liked to joke around with the guys.
To give nicknames to everyone.
That was a fun time.
Sometimes I look kind of serious, but I'm a jokester.
I was always laughing and joking with him,
so he came out of his shell, even though he was kinda shy.
But we developed a friendship and he came out of his shell.
Sometimes he made fun of someone else and I laughed.
And sometimes the victim gets angrier with those who laugh
than with whom made the joke. That's what happens even today.
People get annoyed by me laughing, 'cause I have a loud laugh.
David Luiz says that I laugh too loud
and people can get angry at me.
I can't do anything about it, they should get mad with the jokester.
But that was what happened at Shakhtar's camp.
Jadson joked around, gave nicknames to everyone, I laughed
and the guys got angry at me.
Our team finished in third place at the group stage in Champion's League.
So we competed in the UEFA Cup.
Our team advanced from stage to stage.
At the time it was a team that nobody believed in.
At least not the European press.
Some of them didn't believe our club could go that far.
We managed to get to the finals against Werder Bremen, a great team.
Everyone thought they would win.
But we fought hard in that match, we played well,
everyone gave their best...
We managed to win, Luiz Adriano scored the first goal.
Then Naldo, a Brazilian, scored for them.
He scored a free kick goal besides being a defender.
My goal keeper screwed up! Really screwed up.
I thought: "Of all the days he could fail, it had to be today?"
He failed and the match went into overtime.
Jadson ended up scoring a goal in overtime.
We managed to win this championship, the first for the Ukranian football.
Shakhtar got the first international championship for Ukraine.
I'm very grateful to God for the opportunity of being a champion
with Shakhtar team, with Willian, with all the other Brazilians.
At the end of the match, we just celebrated.
It was overwhelming.
Our title in the UEFA Cup was an important one.
Even today, setting aside the Premiere League with Chelsea
and the England Cup,
it's such a big title to me.
Today it's known as Europa League.
And that was the last UEFA Cup.
The year after that it changed to Europa League.
So, in a way, it was something to remember.
It's a championship that we'll never forget.
The Brazilian players that dreamt of big things,
dreamt of being part of the National Team,
of other championships...
This championship was really special to us.
A really important title that we'll always remember.
Shakhtar actually had a big competitor in Ukraine, Dínamo.
But then Shakhtar started to win
and ended up taking the UEFA Cup.
When that happened, the chairman threw a huge party.
Beyoncé visited the club, it was great.
In 2009...
The player with the best assist in the country: Willian.
In 2010...
The greatest foreign player in the country: Willian.
Chelsea had pursued Willian several times,
but Shakhtar didn't want to let go.
One day, Anzhi,
through some other manager,
payed Willian's transfer fee.
Russia's Anzhi was a club that had a new project.
It was the only club that agreed to pay the transfer fee.
I still had doubts,
'cause I wanted to leave Shakhtar to go to Chelsea.
Chelsea had already made some propositions.
I remember that we were on pre-season, in Spain.
We had trained in the morning,
and we'd have a friendly match in the afternoon.
I went to practice as usual.
I'm in my room, and my manager tells me:
"Anzhi agreed to pay your transfer fee, pack your bags and leave the hotel."
I asked him if he was serious, and he was.
I packed my bags.
He told me to go talk to the coach and say that Anzhi
agreed to pay the transfer fee and I was about to leave.
I packed my bag and went to my coach's room.
He opened the door and asked what had happened.
I said: "I just came to thank you
and tell you that I'm leaving, sir. Anzhi payed the transfer fee."
The coach asked me to wait, to think it over.
I said that the decision was made and I was leaving.
I went to the airport.
I remember my team mates were in the hotel's hall
ready to go to the friendly match.
They saw me leave.
I couldn't even say goodbye to everyone,
'cause I had to go to the airport and get in my plane.
That's how I ended up in Anzhi.
-Hello. -How are you?
Good? Are you fine?
-Good? -How are you?
Thank you.
It's a pleasure being here.
-Are you tired? -A little.
Actually I didn't have any problems adapting.
It's a similar country.
I lived in Moscow, and it's quite a nice city.
Me and my family loved the time we lived there.
It was really nice.
We lived and trained in Moscow, but we played somewhere else.
The club's city was Makhatchkala, that was actually in Dagestan.
We only went there when we played.
It was a growing club and had big names signing with it.
Eto'o, for example. Roberto Carlos as well,
but when I got there, he was part of the technical committee.
Jucilei, who now plays for São Paulo, was there as well.
There were other two Brazilians, João Carlos, a defender,
and Ewerton, another defender.
The squad was quite nice.
They were setting up quite a nice squad.
In Russia, we used to play at the stadium
that held the World Cup final. They have synthetic grass.
Of course it's all renewed now,
but it was at that stadium that Anzhi played
the Europa League's matches.
Anzhi was in the Europa League.
I remember it was...
maybe my 4th match for Anzhi...
3rd or 4th match.
It was against Newcastle.
The ball was loose near the end line and when I stopped,
I felt the posterior tight muscle.
I'd never felt something like that.
I felt that, stayed on the ground, waited for the medical team.
I left the field
and thought: "I'll go back". That was new for me.
I thought that was just a fleeting pain.
I wanted to go back. So I did.
I ran a little slower.
We had a corner kick right after it.
When I went for it... "Bam"!
I felt that pain again. I fell to the ground.
And then a movie goes through your mind...
And you start to think:
"Was I supposed to be here?
What if I'm making the right choice?"
Things like that come to our mind.
You start thinking about all the people's criticism.
"What if those people were right?"
A movie goes through your mind.
I'd never gotten injured like that before.
After that match,
my wife and my manager were at the stadium,
and I stayed with them for a bit after the match.
My wife really supported me. She said that everything would be fine.
I started a treatment after that.
I was injured for 3 weeks.
I started a muscle building treatment as well.
Thank God I've never felt anything like that,
that rendered me so much time out of practice.
Unfortunately the chairman felt like
he should stop investing in the club,
and he decided to sell the players he bought.
And the project of the club ended right there.
But it was such a nice time that I spent there.
I learned a lot there.
When I left Shakhtar, I received a lot of criticism.
I was really criticized in social media.
Even from close people.
But we don't know.
God has plans that may be bigger than ours.
My wife supported me with all her heart.
She was one of my biggest supporters in going there.
She said that I should go, that God would honor me.
And now we're here.
I left Anzhi and signed with Chelsea.
IN THE NEXT EPISODE
The player you admire the most in Chelsea's history?
John Terry.
Training in negative degrees is quite hard.
We get frozen. We can't feel our feet.
I can't explain, you kick a ball and you don't feel it.
Stamford Bridge?
It's my home.
The supporters?
Warm.
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