Can I clarify some of the things you said? PLEASE, I am not trying to offend you... Before Chelsea: 1. He played for Sao Paulo FC until he was 13-14 years old as a CAM. Since he was five, he had to take the bus by himself to go to the training academy and to school. One day they simply released him. Luiz came home crying and his parents comforted him by telling him this would not be the only no in his career. 2. One month after his release, Vitoria-BA called him and offered him a trial. The only problem is that they are from Salvador, Bahia and David was from Sao Paulo, SP (2100km away). He asked for his mom to buy him an airplane ticket, because it would take a couple of days to get there if he was to go by bus. Then, she went into a bank and made a debt they could not pay to allow him to go. At the airport, Luiz said to his parents that he would pay them back 10 times higher then what they did. 3. At Vitoria (they are a third division team, so you can imagine how big of an infra-structure they have), he was on the bench and both CB got hurt. The coach had no two CBs and Luiz was asked to cover there (a CAM playing CB, lol). Luiz did great and since he was tall and stronger, he went to become a CB or DM (whenever the team needed him). He spent 2 years without seeing or speaking with his parents (remember he obviously had no computer nor money to call them). 4. At the age of 17, he was promoted and helped Vitoria to reach Brazilian Second Division and win State Championship. According to his former coach: Luiz was amazing, the best he had seen in ages, a centre-back who could actually pass. 5. All of this trigged interest from Anderlecht from Belgium. He would get a 3 year deal, but on the day they came to Brazil to watch him play for the last time and finally sign him; his went went on losing 6-0 to Criciuma-SC. They got stunned by how "bad" David was and cancelled the deal. Luiz, away from home, thought he had lost his only opportunity to go to a bigger club and thought of going back to his family in Sao Paulo. 6. One year later (2008), he was offered the chance to go to Benfica on a 6 month deal. In his second match (on the bench, of course), Benfica was playing the last team of Portuguese League and Luisao got injured and he came on. After 15min, he had already done two staggering mistakes which led to two goals. At half time, he said that everyone was looking at him, some with anger and some with pity. The manager came to him and asked if he wanted to be subbed; Luiz said no and returned to the game to be MOTM on a 3-2 victory. After this game, he also had a big game against PSG for Europa League, which secured his spot at the starting lineup for Benfica. In 2010, he won the title and the best player award! 7. He was offered Portuguese citizenship quite a lot of times, but even without a Brazilian cap perspective (at the time), he refused it saying he will forever be Brazilian and he would never turn his back to his own country! 8. When he signed for Chelsea in 2011, he said it was the best day of his life, he was extremely happy and proud of everything he went through to get to one of the biggest clubs in the world. His house is full of Chelsea stuff (it is so awesome). After Chelsea: 9. He has one hell of a penthouse, I have no idea how he pays for it, because I am sure it costs a couple of million pounds (wasn't him "only on 40-50k/week until this very season?). He made sure he had all the toys he dreamed as a kid, lol. His moms says that she never saw him without a smile on his face, bar the days he got rejected by the clubs mentioned above! 10. He sends his parents (yes, both live in Brazil still) a percentage of his wages to them so they can help Brazilian kids. They do all sorts of charity events and actions. This is truly inspirational, he doesn't simply send the money (this is easy), he participates in as much as he possibly can. UCL: 11. He said that winning the Champions League is by far the biggest achievement in his career. He tells the interviewer quite a few great stories. When he went to train with the team on the Wednesday prior to the match and in his first run, his leg hurt, he could even do a 40 yard dash. On Friday morning in our training session in Allianz Arena, our head of physio was supposed to evaluate Luiz and clear him or not to play. David says that he came to the guy, I now don't remember the name (he has a familiar face though), and tells him that he wouldn't be the one to take him out of his biggest ever game, saying that if we lost, it was all his responsibility (Luiz's), but he would not let anyone take that away from him by any chance. 12. On the night before the game, RDM came into his room and asked several times if he was OK, he answered yes in all of them; when Di Matteo was leaving he said that is was the greatest night in the history of the club and David had to not screw up. Luiz said he felt enormous pressure because he knew how his legs were hurting and that he was NOT ok. Even worse, when lunching with the team on Saturday, Roman called Luiz to his table and asked how his legs were. Luiz answered that he would not play with his legs, but with his heart and with his head. He said (laughing) that Roman went nuts and said that this only made him feel less confident. David stopped him and said, "Do you want to win it, right? Don't you worry that we got this.". 13. About the penalty, the TV presenter asked how much pressure there was on his shoulder and Luiz answered that after all he went through in his life, there was no pressure in taking a penalty! Brazil: 14. He goes on saying how this is the dream of every kid and how amazing it is to play with players like Neymar and Thiago Silva. How incredible it is to wear the yellow shirt and even be captain. How greatfull he is for Mano calling him for the first time. Etc, etc, etc. 15. He also ends the interview saying he fully believes we will win the WC. He thinks nobody will handle the energy that will come from everyone. If we don't believe in ourselves, no one will.
