The £28m superstar teenager set to transform Chelsea - and take Madueke and Nkunku's minutes

“My biggest dream is to be the best player in the world” – the words of a 17-year-old Estevão Willian, a freshly-minted Brazil international, record-breaking Palmeiras winger and future Chelsea player. Coming from the mouth of most youngsters, it would sound like teenage bluster. With Estevão, it’s a perfectly plausible vision, backed up not by arrogance but a calm confidence in his ability.

That ability has now earned him three caps for his country, although all have come from the bench and his most recent, which came in a disappointing 1-1 draw against Venezuela on Thursday night, saw him come onto the field with just a minute of normal time left to play. He has yet to make his mark with the Seleçao, but his achievements at club level should give Chelsea fans plenty of cause for excitement.

His most recent goal, a tap-in which capped a superb performance against Grêmio and won the match, took him to 20 goals and assists in the Brasileirão season – more than any player under the age of 18 has ever managed. The previous record was 18, set by a young Neymar back in his Santos days.

Neymar is a player that Estevão draws frequent comparisons to, but it’s Lionel Messi who comes up most often. The Brazilian media have dubbed him Messinho – ‘Little Messi’ – a nickname which he dislikes even though he describes Messi as his idol. But while it may be a lazy moniker to give a young player and, given that he stands a couple of inches taller than Messi at 5’9”, a slightly baffling one, it also sums up his playing style and skill surprisingly well.

Blessed with preternaturally quick feet, fluid movement and the capacity to turn defenders inside out, Estevão is already, at 17, one of the better dribblers in the global game. His brief appearances with the national side have yet to give a clear indication of how his gifts will stack up against the world’s best defenders, but we will find out soon enough at Stamford Bridge. It seems unlikely that Estevão will be dropped into the Under-21 side when he arrives.

Plenty of players with similar gifts have fallen flat, of course, although few looked as good as Estevão does at his age. He may be bigger than Messi, but he is still slight of frame and will have to learn how to handle the increased physicality of the Premier League. A possible over-reliance on his wickedly powerful and precise left foot may render him predictable, although most defenders in Brazil struggle to time a tackle on him. But he has the talent and, it would seem, the attitude.

A combination of external hype and internal arrogance has stunted plenty of young careers – even with Neymar, it’s hard not to wonder what could have been had his outrageous talent been married to a more consistent work ethic – but even though Estevão dreams of being the best in the world, he seems unlikely to get carried away with his own brilliance.

In the wide-ranging interview with The Guardian in which he spoke about his vision of becoming the best in the world, he also laid out the way he hopes to get there.

“Some people are born with talent, others have to work hard”, he said. “Good examples are Messi and Ronaldo. Messi has the talent, Ronaldo the effort. I look for both. Talent and dedication. Today in football you have to dedicate yourself, you have to keep to a schedule, train, travel, take care of yourself. You have to give up a lot. Without dedication you can’t get anywhere.”

By all accounts, he follows through on that ideology. Born into a poor and deeply religious family, Estevão talks movingly about the central role his parents’ example – and the sacrifices they have made for him, moving up and down the country from the age of just eight as his young career progressed. They have, he said, “shielded” him from excessive hype, which started from the age of just 10 when he first appeared on Brazilian TV. He comes across as happy, humble and deeply determined, but not as arrogant.

In other words, he does not seem like the kind of player to be distracted by the trappings of wealth and fame, or to get bogged down if he doesn’t make an instant impact in the Premier League. All of which is good news for Chelsea – but perhaps less good for players like Christopher Nkunku and Noni Madueke, who will have some dangerously potent competition for places coming their way next season.

Estevão has mostly played on the right wing so far in his career but sees his future as a number ten. When he arrives at Stamford Bridge next summer as part of a deal worth more than £28m, he will likely push more established names for game time. Cole Palmer – whose signature celebration Estevão gleefully imitated after scoring his first goal since signing his deal with Chelsea – is probably safe enough, but that’s less true for others.

If Enzo Maresca sees Estevão as a winger, for the time being at least, then Madueke will have to redouble his efforts to continue to be the starter down the right flank. After a slow start to life at Stamford Bridge, Madueke has burst into life in recent months and has forced his way into the England side as Bukayo Saka’s deputy. That form, which has seen him score four times in 10 games this season, will at least offer him an early edge, but while Madueke has quick feet and impressively cut-throat instincts in the penalty area, a betting man would expect Estevão to exceed him eventually.

And should Estevão make his case to play through the middle (or should Maresca decide to put Palmer back out wide at some stage), Nkunku may have a problem. Since returning from injury this season, the Frenchman has struggled to force his way into Maresca’s starting line-up despite playing well when given opportunities in Europe. There is already speculation among the usual rumour merchants that he could be on his way out. If Estevão lives up to his promise quickly, an exit could be expedited.

To complicate matters even further, Estevão isn’t the only heavily-hyped young, left-footed, winger or attacking midfielder coming to Chelsea from South America next summer. The club have also agreed a deal for Independiente del Valle and Ecuador prodigy Kendry Páez, for a fee starting at £17m. Also 17 and similarly regarded as a colossally-gifted prospect, he may provide further competition.

Kendry is further along in his professional career in some regards, as well, and already has 17 caps (and two goals) for Ecuador, admittedly an easier national side to break into. Not that his road towards stardom has been entirely smooth – despite being underage, he was recently warned by the Ecuadorian FA after he was caught partying in a nightclub, just months after he was spotted with team-mates in a New York strip club.

Rightly, most of the fallout from that controversy focused on the more senior players who had taken a then 16-year-old to such an establishment, but there are perhaps some signs that Kendry is slightly more in touch with the youthful urge to pain the town red than is ideal in an athletic prospect. Still, if he can maintain his focus and career trajectory, he could easily be pushing for first-team minutes before long as well.

It may sound laughably premature to be discussing the minutes that teenagers might get when they join Chelsea next summer, but with Estevão in particular, the talent burns so brightly that it’s hard to picture him playing too many games against League Two sides in the group stages of the EFL Trophy with the reserves. After all, Estevão is already playing for Brazil at a younger age than Neymar and Messi was an established regular at Barcelona by the time he was 19.

If Estevão lives up to the comparisons – and watching him dazzle defenders in Brazil makes one suspect that he will – then Chelsea fans have a great deal to look forward to. The players working hard to earn a place under Maresca right now should, perhaps, be a little less excited.