Willian has told the Daily Mail that he’s so grateful to Fulham for giving him another chance to play in the Premier League.

The Brazilian winger, who details his commendable charity work to reduce the poverty in the favelas in his homeland in a wide-ranging interview with the newspaper today, says he is so happy back in London that he will remain in the English capital once he retires – although he is far from thinking about hanging up his boots after making such an impact with the Whites after signing on a free transfer in August.

Willian, who cancelled his Corinthians contract after he and his family received death threats following some perceived poor performances, said:

“I am so happy to be back here. In England, in London and in the Premier League. This feels like my home and I will live here after I have retired. Fulham brought me back and I am very happy that they did. If I’m out for dinner here or for a walk it’s nice because fans from Arsenal will say they are happy I am having a good spell now and I even see ones from Tottenham who say I wish I had signed for them before I joined Chelsea. The Fulham fans are great and then there are the Chelsea ones. They just shout out “Legend!”.

The 34 year-old former Brazilian international admits he had to dispel some perceptions about returning to England for one last payday when he began training with the Whites.

“Many people thought I was coming here just to chill and only play when I wanted to. But I have proved them wrong. It’s been brilliant for me and I am really enjoying it. I had some doubts. Fulham have in the past been up and down, they have struggled. I didn’t want to go to a club fighting down the table. But the first contact with Marco [Silva] I was very impressed. I trusted him and what he told me.

He admits that Fulham should be looking forward to an FA Cup semi-final this month after leading for more than 70 minutes before imploding in a ‘crazy’ quarter final against Manchester United.

“That was just so hard as the game was in our control and I still can’t believe we lost it. We were much the better team. United are a huge club and it’s hard to play there. But we were the better team and could have scored maybe three goals. But football is crazy and things can change just like this. I always say football is a sport where you can control the performance but not the result. For that United penalty I tried to intercept the ball but it went over me and I had to sprint back. Then Jadon Sancho was one-v-one so I had to sprint back to try to do something.

The ball came to my hand. I didn’t want to put my hand to the ball and I tried to say to the referee that my hand was close to my body. I knew it would be a penalty but hoped for a yellow. The red card came and that finished the game for us.”

Willian also believes talismanic striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has been hard done to after being banned for eight matches following his altercation with referee Chris Kavanagh.

‘I don’t think the ban is right because it was an emotional situation. He didn’t want to punch the referee or something like this. So maybe three games or four games, I don’t know. But eight games I think is too much. He is okay but sad because he is going to miss a lot of games that are coming up. He is so important for us. These games without him will be difficult. When we are under pressure and the opponent comes to press us and we can’t play short, we know Mitro is there to hold the ball. Without him it will be difficult but we have Carlos Vinicius who is a strong one as well. We have players who can still do things to help us win football matches.”