“Filled me with pride” – Youth coach explains how he trained new Chelsea star in crucial area | OneFootball

Chelsea are expected to announce the signing of Joao Pedro from Brighton today for a sum in the region of £50m, and that’s led to a host of profiles on the attacker, who is taking another step forward in his career.

The Daily Mail’s profile of him is really great, filling in tons of details on his background and the path which led to him Stamford Bridge thanks to an interview with his former coach Marcelo Veiga, who was youth technical coordinator at Fluminense.

How Joao Pedro learned to head the ball

Joao Pedro of Brighton and Hove Albion is a target of Chelsea (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)

We particularly love the part about teaching him to head the ball. His former coach explains that JP had been a defensive midfielder, and once he was moved to striker needed a lot of work on his aerial play.

“He had the gift. So I started to train his heading. He must remember. We did basic heading drills until we increased their complexity and moved him to the No 9 position,” Veiga recalled. It paid off.

“He was a centre forward who also knew how to use space with presence in the box, played the pivot role well, and turned his body equally well, dribbling past opponents.

Physical changes help JP mature improve even more

“Then came his physical maturation. He started to bulk up, to become strong and fast, and had a great ascent. He was the top scorer of the Under 17s, played for the Under 20s, and went up to the professional team, where he scored headers, which filled me with pride.

“He, who until then had barely put his head to the ball, was now getting good headers.”

We now see aerial ability as one of the main things he’s going to bring to Enzo Maresca’s squad. The piece also notes that Joao Pedro are his two Christian names – hence why he’s not going to be called “Pedro” anywhere.