Brazilian midfielder Ramires was a key member of the Chelsea squad that conquered Europe by winning the UEFA Champions League in 2012, as well as playing against Benfica 12 months later in the final of the UEFA Europa League, which we won to briefly become the only side ever to hold both trophies simultaneously.

It was on the eve of the 2010/11 campaign that Chelsea confirmed the signing of a 23-year-old midfielder who had forced his way into the Brazil side during that summer’s World Cup in South Africa, just a few months after ending his first season with Benfica by winning the Portuguese top flight.

Although Brazil had been dumped out of a tournament they were among the favourites for in the quarter-finals by a Netherlands side that eventually finished as runners-up, representing his country on the biggest stage had fulfilled a lifelong dream for Ramires.

As with so many young Brazilians, his football upbringing centred on World Cups, and one of his earliest memories is the 1994 final, a drab 0-0 draw between Brazil and Italy that would have struggled to capture his imagination had Roberto Baggio not famously skied his penalty in the shootout to hand the trophy to the Selecao for the fourth time.

Eight years later, by now in his mid-teens and with a career in professional football within touching distance, he watched every game of the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea as Luiz Felipe Scolari – who would later become Chelsea manager – guided Brazil to glory once more.

Ronaldo was their star man, back when you could refer to him without adding ‘R9’, and Ramires, like every other young boy in Brazil at that time, wanted to emulate the striking sensation in every way.

‘Do you remember his haircut for the final?’ he asked of the bizarre shaved head with a patch at the front look that the Brazilian No9 sported at the end of the tournament. ‘I wanted that. And I had it! Luckily it wasn’t for very long and I shaved it off soon after that. Children see footballers as role models and we want to copy them and do everything that they do – even if it means getting a bad haircut!’

He may have briefly adopted the R9 look – and, as we would later discover here at Chelsea, his penchant for spectacular goals, albeit on a less-frequent basis – but it was a box-to-box midfielder at Flamengo who he would more closely resemble on the pitch.

‘When I was young I used to tune in to Globo TV, who showed a lot of Flamengo games, so they became the team I supported as a child and I loved to watch their games,’ he recalled. ‘There was one player, Beto, who amazed me every time I watched them play because he was able to carry the ball from one end of the pitch to the other and he became my favourite player.’

Sound familiar? While he was built like, and had the stamina of, a marathon runner, Ramires was hard to muscle off the ball and he loved a tackle, traits which ensured the fans at the Bridge quickly took to him. It didn’t take Blues fans long to work out that their new No7 was not the stereotypical Brazilian flair player, although that’s not to say he wasn’t capable of moments of brilliance.

Aided by the presence of fellow countryman Alex – he of the thunderous free-kicks – and a number of other Portuguese speakers in the squad, Ramires settled in quickly and became a regular in Carlo Ancelotti’s side. After initially only showing the less eye-catching facets of his game, he ended his first campaign as a Blue by scoring a Goal of the Season winner against Manchester City, when he waltzed through their defence and finished with aplomb past Joe Hart.

‘I remember after the game, we went to the dressing room and all the team were calling me “Rammydinho”! They thought it was like a goal Ronaldinho would score. When I watched it back, it was even more amazing. I was so happy.

‘This kind of goal, you don’t even think – it just happens. My back was to the goal when I received the ball, so my first thought was just to control it and turn. When this happened, the first defender came and I went past him and I still had good control. The second came and I dribbled past him and then I was in on goal, so I shot – that was the easy bit.’

Little did we know that he would eclipse that goal, both in terms of beauty and importance, a year later with a strike against Barcelona that is still talked about to this day.

Having defeated Napoli in a last-16 turnaround for the ages, followed by a more straightforward quarter-final win over his old club, Ramires and Chelsea would have to overcome Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona to earn a place in the final. Few gave us any hope of emerging victorious.

‘I remember before that semi-final I was interviewed at my house for Brazilian TV,’ he recalled. ‘One guy from there said to me, “Chelsea don’t have any chance. Maybe you guys will lose the first game at Stamford Bridge 5-0. After, in Barcelona, who knows how many it will be”. I said to him, “With football, you never know. We are playing at home, we can win the game, and then we can win there, too”. He told me he didn’t believe that, but all the players believed...’

After assisting Didier Drogba’s winner in a 1-0 victory at the Bridge, it looked like Ramires’ faith may have been misplaced when we found ourselves trailing 2-0 at Camp Nou and down to 10 men just before half-time. Then came the moment that will long define Ramires’ legacy as a Blue.

‘I received the ball, then I passed it to Lampard and I started to run. Their defence was not that compact, so I ran through the middle. Lampard saw this, he took away [Javier] Mascherano and saw me, so he passed me the ball. I ran and ran and then I saw [Victor] Valdes coming and I knew I had one thing I could do to score a goal – to put the ball over him.

‘After I chipped it, I went to celebrate but I had to look again to make sure it had gone into the back of the net! When I saw it touching the net, I ran to celebrate and I could only hear our fans. The stadium was quiet, but our fans were screaming. That was a good feeling for me. In that moment, I thought we could do it. But we must say congratulations to everybody in the team, not just me for the goal or Fernando Torres for the second. We played like a team and because of that we reached the final.’

What is not as well remembered is that Ramires had just moved position to right-back, following John Terry’s red card, and just a few minutes before his moment of magic, he had received a yellow card that meant he would be suspended for the final.

‘I didn’t know I was out of the final. When I arrived in the dressing room after the game, everybody was celebrating. I sat down, I started thinking about the game, the final of the Champions League, and someone came to me and said, “Oh, Rammy, you are out of the final”. I looked at them and said, “Me? Why?!” They told me it was a second yellow card and I was now suspended. In that moment, I was sad. We had reached the final but I couldn’t play. But I was happy because the team was in the final, and obviously I was really happy that we won it – even if it was very hard for me only to be able to watch!’

The Barcelona goal was part of an end-of-season run when Ramires made a welcome habit of bagging vital goals, as he also scored a delightful dink in a thumping FA Cup semi-final win over Spurs at Wembley, which was followed by another goal against Liverpool to become the first Brazilian to net in an FA Cup final.

‘I always thought Wembley looked like an amazing stadium,’ he said. ‘Then I got to play there in an FA Cup semi-final, and I scored; after that, the final, and another goal, to help win the trophy! It was also a dream for my family. They would say, “A few years ago, you were in Brazil with us, in Barra Pirraei – now you are in London, playing for Chelsea, winning finals at Wembley. It is like a dream”.

‘It was an amazing year for me. I was also chosen as the best player at Chelsea by my team-mates, something that never happened in my life! I have that and all the trophies and medals in a special place, to keep forever.’

While the 2011/12 season was undoubtedly the high point of his five-and-a-half years with Chelsea, there were still plenty more special moments to come. He started the Europa League final win over Benfica in 2013, before completing the set of domestic honours by helping us to lift the League Cup and Premier League in 2015, although by this time he had found starting opportunities harder to come by.

And for a player known more for his endeavour than his goalscoring qualities, a tally of 34 from 251 appearances certainly wasn’t too shabby – especially when you consider that two of them won Goal of the Season awards here, and he remains the only player to achieve that in back-to-back campaigns.

‘People would say, “That guy is in midfield. I don’t think he could make good goals like some of the other players”. But I did! I scored a lot of nice goals and I’m very proud of that. Every time when I have time, I go to the internet, I put on YouTube, and I watch the goals!

‘When I look back at my time with Chelsea, I can say they were the best years of my career. When I arrived, the first thing I wanted to do was win one trophy. Now, when I look back, I can see how important these five-and-a-half years were, all these trophies we won. The Chels made me what I am today.

‘I am so grateful to this club. Everything today is because of what happened in my time there. I won many trophies, I did a lot for the club and the club did a lot for me. Whenever I think about Chelsea it makes me happy. These years were very good for me.’