Chelsea midfielder Lucas Piazon has spoken of working with Olympique Marseille coach Andre Villas-Boas.
Currently on-loan with Rio Ave, Piazon worked with AVB for a short time at Chelsea. The Brazilian signed for the Blues as a teenager eight years ago from Sao Paulo and admits his first days at the Cobham training complex were a shock.
By his own admission, Piazon admits being starstruck as he trained with some of Chelsea's greatest ever players.
Speaking of his move to London as a 17 year-old, he told Maisfutebol: "I only aspired to reach the main team of São Paulo. I arrived in another world. I never trained with the professionals from São Paulo and, suddenly, I was already there with those monsters.
"I trained with the main squad on the first day. John Terry, Lampard, Drogba… 'What am I doing here?' (laughs) The trainer was André Villas-Boas, Portuguese."
Villas-Boas had just returned to Chelsea after leaving Porto. The Portuguese coach had been part of Jose Mourinho's backroom team before departing to launch his own management career. Piazon admits he was left motivated and excited by the methods of AVB.
He continued: "I turned 18 in January and at that stage there were some players missing from CAN. André Villas-Boas called me for some matches.
"Unfortunately, I didn't have the pleasure of training for a long time with him, because André later left Chelsea. I remember that he did training completely different from what I knew in Brazil. It was almost always in small spaces and with great intensity. I even adapted well to André's work proposal. In Brazil it didn't even occur to me to train that way."
Piazon has kicked off the season with Rio Ave impressively, making five appearances so far. The midfielder has a deal to Chelsea until 2022.
- updated October 12
