This article was first published on the Chelsea Official App in 2022.

The beginning

Let me tell you a strange story about how I became a footballer.

My dad, Oscar, was a car salesman. He loved football, and he’d play with me for hours. One day, when I was maybe eight years old, a man visited his shop to buy a car. They got talking, as you do, and they eventually got onto the subject of football. My dad told him about me, his eldest son, and how I always had a ball at my feet.

This man, whose name I cannot remember, told my dad to bring me to some academy trials. My dad’s face lights up.

‘Where?’ he says.

‘Espanyol’s academy,’ the man replies.

So my dad took me, and I trained with them for the next few weeks. I think they liked what they saw! This man is one of the main reasons I got through the academy system.

My father was very strict, but in a good way I think. If I failed one pass, or had one bad action, he would see it as a disaster, a catastrophe. But maybe this was important? Maybe I needed that one person to push me, and to tell me how to improve. That was my dad.

Before that, it all started with futsal. When I first played, the guys were much older than me.

I remember being so scared! They were bigger, taller, stronger… but I just ran like a crazy kid. I think they were like, who on earth is this little boy with the curly hair?

After Espanyol, I signed for Barcelona.

Moving teams on deadline day is… stressful!

In 2018, I moved from Barcelona to Eibar on loan. To my agent, I was like, Eibar? That’s like a six-hour drive away!

I went with my wife, and it was the first time we’d moved away from our families and moved cities.

I couldn’t get a game at first, I was on the bench in three of my first four games. But I was still going to training excited.

Then, suddenly, I was starting every single game!

Three years later, I moved to Brighton. If I worked in a different industry, I wouldn’t have moved to England. I think people forget this.

Football is my job, and my family will come with me wherever. Moving to Brighton was all very new for my 15-day-old little boy!

Whenever we had days off at Brighton, we would drive into London. And every single time, the road home was via Fulham Road.

Always.

We would pass Stamford Bridge and I noticed how the stadium is in the middle of the city.

The area is beautiful, the buildings huge. I would always say to myself, imagine playing here.
Now I call it home, and it’s surreal.

Last call for Ibiza

Ok, Blues, I’m nearly done telling you my story.

This is how I signed for Chelsea…

I was sat waiting at the airport to go to Ibiza with my friends and family, and my agent told me he had a call in the morning from an American number. He didn’t return the call at first. So, we decided to send a text instead, to be sure. It was the Chelsea owner, Todd Boehly.

I called my wife, who was in Barcelona, and I said, 'Wow. Chelsea are meeting to discuss signing me'.

I had two minutes until boarding closed for my flight to Ibiza. My agent told me not to get on the plane, he said stay in the airport for now.

But I didn’t see these messages. I don’t know why, but I put my phone away for a few minutes, and therefore I wasn’t in contact with my agent.

So I boarded the plane...

...I signed for Chelsea!