Man Utd's future could be revolutionised by this £47m Brazilian wonderkid sensation

The Under-17 World Cup, the final of which will be played in Indonesia between Germany and France this Saturday, has brought quite a few rising stars to global attention – or at least to the attention of the scouting teams of the world’s biggest clubs. And few of the youngsters on show have attracted quite as much attention, or generated quite as much buzz, as Estevão Willian.

A left-footed right-winger, 16-year-old Estevão plays for Brazilian league leaders Palmeiras alongside Endrick, the Brazilian hypertalent who made his full international debut in the latest round of World Cup qualifiers and who will join Real Madrid next year, and there are plenty who think Estevão could well be in the same class. His nickname certainly tells you a lot about how highly many in Brazil regard him – Messinho, or ‘Little Messi’.

It's incredibly hard for any such tag to be anything other than hyperbole, but there are clearly quite a few big-ticket teams who think he has a chance of hitting those sorts of heights. According to a new report from TeamTalk, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are all interested, as are Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund. It won’t be long before the wizardly little winger is snapped up by a superclub.

Estevão plays as an inverted winger, starting attacking plays out wide before looking to cut in and shoot or play a killer through ball – and he did that to devastating effect during the Under-17 World Cup, scoring three goals and setting up three more. His performance against minnow New Caledonia, in particular, provided a show reel all by itself, with a goal and three assists racked up within seconds of the start of the second-half.

His goal was a peach, and highlighted many of the attributes he has in abundance – a quick change of pace with the ball seemingly glued to his feet to send a defender into no-man’s land, followed by a perfectly-judged curling shot from the right-hand corner of the area into the side netting on the far side, looping round a stranded goalkeeper. His assists weren’t shabby either, particularly the inch-perfect cross, sent over from the right and which cut out the entire defence before landing perfectly on the head of team-mate Kauã Elias.

The fact that he can cross so well is a part of what makes him so dangerous. Many wide forwards that look to cut in on their favoured foot don’t have the same kind of accurate long passing, which makes him a nightmare for defences to deal with. Close him down and he can shimmy past you and into space behind. Back off and he gets the room to deliver his astonishingly accurate balls into the box.

For his age, his technique is simply remarkable, and his first touch and close control are high class even now. The ‘Little Messi’ moniker does give away some of his potential weaknesses, admittedly – like the Argentina legend, he is small of stature and is unlikely to win many arm-wrestling contests. He also needs to improve his defensive work, and while he’s more than willing to track back and muck in, he doesn’t present a very formidable barrier.

Of course, being slight of size never stopped Messi, and Estevão’s pace, skill, eye for a cross and sharp passing, combined with his dangerous shooting and burgeoning ability to make an exploit space, means he has a massive skillset to contribute to a future employer. He’s a few years away from being a genuine star, of course, but the building blocks are all there and he’s got a lot of people in a lather in his homeland already.

Being under the age of 18, he won’t be moving just yet, although it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see a club pin him down before he’s eligible to complete a transfer over to Europe. We’ve seen both Real Madrid and Chelsea agree big money deals with promising South American 16-year-olds over the past year or so, specifically the aforementioned Endrick to Real and the supremely gifted Ecuadorian midfielder Kendry Páez for Chelsea. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Estevão joined the club of big talents bought well in advance of his ability to move country.

His current contract – signed in April, has a release clause of £47m, although it’s very likely that Palmeiras would accept less than that. The player himself is apparently a boyhood Barcelona fan, which might bias his decision, and the Catalan club aren’t averse to plunging into the Brazilian talent pool either, given that they’re in the process of signing another superlative young striker, Vitor Roque.

Time will tell where Estevão winds up, but he looks like a colossal talent just starting to show his qualities on a bigger stage. He hasn’t yet broken into the Palmeiras first team – that will almost certainly come next season – but if he continues his progress in the senior ranks then his is a name we’ll hear an awful lot more of, very soon indeed.

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