There’s plenty to enjoy in Andreas Pereira’s appearance on the Fulham Fix, which was released via the club’s official website this morning.
Hosts Ivan Berry and Felix White do manage to coax a little bit more than most interviewers out of players who will already think we know really well. There’s a touching moment where Pereira talks about how much playing for Brazil means to him and how special his recall for the game against England next week is, plus the full story about why he still clings on to Kaka’s shorts, but for me the most interesting element was just what persuaded him to make the move to Craven Cottage.
Pereira’s emphasis on the role Marco Silva played in the transfer tallies with what other signings have said about the Fulham head coach – and underscores just how much credit the Portuguese boss deserves for the Whites’ achievements since he succeeded Scott Parker.
“When the manager called, I still had that in myself, that I wanted to show people that I can play in the Premier League, that I can play at the highest level. When the boss called me, he said ‘I know you have the quality to play in the Premier League and I want you to show it and I want to give you the chance to do it’, so when he said that, it was like a challenge for me. I spoke about it with my father and I said ‘I think I want to go back, I want to prove the people wrong, I’m a top player, I want to play in a top league’, so that’s what made me come to Fulham.”
