People in football love to talk about mental strength. Well, I’m the strongest dude you’re ever going to meet.
I was six years old, and I came home for lunch during our break at school. My mum had the same thing on the menu every single day: Bread and milk. When you’re a kid, you don’t even think about it. But I guess that’s what we could afford.
Then this one day I came home, and I walked into the kitchen, and I saw my mum at the refrigerator with the box of milk, like normal. But this time she was mixing something in with it. She was shaking it all up, you know? I didn’t understand what was going on. Then she brought my lunch over to me, and she was smiling like everything was cool. But I realized right away what was going on.
She was mixing water in with the milk. We didn’t have enough money to make it last the whole week…Then I’d come home at night and the lights would be shut off. No electricity for two, three weeks at a time.
I couldn’t see my mother living like that. Nah, nah, nah.
I was six. I asked my father, “When can you start playing professional football?” He said, “Sixteen.” I said, “O.K., sixteen then.”
It was going to happen. Period. I’m dead-ass serious.
When I was 11 years old, I was playing for the Lièrse youth team, and one of the parents from the other team literally tried to stop me from going on the pitch. He was like, “How old is this kid? Where is his I.D.? Where is he from?” I was all alone, and I had to stand up for myself. I went and got my I.D. from my bag and showed it to all the parents, and they were passing it around inspecting it, and I remember the blood just rushing through me … and I thought, “Oh, I’m gonna kill your son even more now. I was already going to kill him, but now I’m gonna destroy him. You’re gonna drive the boy home crying now.” I played with so much anger, because of a lot of things … because of the rats running around in our apartment… because of how the other parents used to look at me.
I kept my promise, you know?
I told my mum that I would make it at 16. I was late by 11 days.
“We’re not used to their current situation. I was really fortunate to be part of a really good era. A bad season was like second, third, or fourth at the most, so I think it’s shocking,” he added.
“Chelsea are very used to change, but what they’ve always had is results, so I’d like to see them get back to the top half of the table very soon. I think the club will come back.
"They’re a huge club and there’s obviously been issues there. You see that when they fire the manager who won the league six months before. I know a lot of people at the club. They will come back.”
Willian of Chelsea FC celebrates his goal during the 2015/16 Barclays Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Chelsea FC at Selhurst Park in London, England on January 3, 2016.
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