‘Go away, I don’t want to see your face’- Roman Abramovich tells Chelsea player before UCL final win
Reports finally reveals that, The Blues owner Roman Abramovich couldn’t bear to look at David Luiz prior to Chelsea’s Champions League final win in Munich in 2012.
Luiz had been out for over a month due to a hamstring injury before Chelsea faced Bayern Munich in the Champions League final back in 2012, but played through the pain.
The centre-back played the full 120 minutes and even took a penalty in the deciding shootout, showing no sign of injury or fatigue as he netted his spot-kick.
The Brazilian said: “I perhaps should not have played, but some special people encouraged me to take that step, to play even though I was not fit. They told me not to be scared. There was big pressure after that.”
Luiz, who was 25 at the time, said: “Roman Abramovich spoke to me on the day of the game and asked, ‘How is your leg?’ I told him, ‘It does not matter, I play with my head and my heart’.
“He said, ‘Go away, I don’t want to see your face, I am so nervous!’ I said to him, ‘Don’t worry, we will win’.
“But it could have gone badly wrong. Imagine if I’d been forced off after 10 minutes, or I made a mistake for a goal because I could not run? It was a big, big decision.”
Luiz continued: “I was the only Brazilian in this game, that meant a lot. I had many things in my head trying to block out the pain — the dream, the love, the adrenalin.
“After the game, with the trophy, no one cared about my leg, not even me. It was only in the middle of the night when the adrenalin wore off that the pain returned.”
However, The former Benfica man would go on to make 160 Premier League appearances for Chelsea across two spells, winning the Premier League, Champions League, two FA Cups and two Europa Leagues.