Another day and another Brazilian link as Chelsea are set to sign Fluminense starlet Wallace, a player the Stamford Bridge club already owns 40% of the rights to, as part of a deal which saw Deco join the Brazilian club last summer.
Wallace, 16, has impressed for the Brazil Under-17 side in the right-back position lately and it’s believed that the Blues would like to push through a permanent deal for the player.
Peter Siemsen, Fluminense president, explained that the player is part-owned by Chelsea, but nothing else is done yet:
“He still plays for Fluminense and to get him out of Brazil, Chelsea would have to pay the amount of the penalty clause remaining.
“Chelsea only have a stake in him.”
Wallace has not played for his club’s first team yet, but could follow in the footsteps of Manchester United duo Rafael and Fabio Da Silva, who moved to England from the Rio de Janeiro club before they had even stepped out for the Fluminense first XI.
But Siemsen is adamant that the situation is different from the Da Silva twins:
“The situation is totally different. They were negotiated for and a deadline was there for them to move by the time they were 18.
“That was then, not now – we want the player to, and depending on our coach, rise to the professional ranks here by 2012.”
(teamtalk.com)
As for Wallace, he reckons that he would be ready for such a move, but insists that he won’t pay it too much mind until it’s a done deal:
“I feel ready for this challenge since I started playing football.
“I have not talked with the coaches yet, but the expectation exists. Let’s see how it goes.”
(Globoesporte)
Chelsea already possess a few young left-backs that are starting to work their way into the first team reckoning, like Patrick van Aanholt and Ryan Bertrand, who delivered a great cross to Florent Malouda for Chelsea’s third goal against Birmingham last night, could Wallace provide similar promise on the right side of the pitch?
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