FOOTBALLERS are often criticised for chasing after the money these days.
But one superstar turned down millions just to ensure he was playing regular minutes.
Willian ripped up his contract with Arsenal back in 2021 after struggling to find form under Mikel Arteta in North London.
The Brazilian had signed a lucrative three-year deal at the Emirates after calling time on his seven-year spell with London rivals Chelsea.
The 35-year-old was reportedly earning £220,000 PER WEEK with the Gunners, but had failed to impress in his first year with the club.
The winger managed just one goal in his 37 appearances for Arsenal and knew it was time to move on when things weren’t working out – even if it meant passing up on the cash from the remaining two years of his deal.
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Willian remarkably asked to terminate his deal so that he could move on to play regular football and regain his form – ultimately moving back to his home country to re-join his boyhood club Corinthians.
And the Brazil international has explained that the move felt right despite passing up millions of pounds to make it happen.
Speaking to the Telegraph, he said: “When I left Arsenal everyone knows it was not good.
“It was a difficult year for me, I decided to leave and, at that time, I still had two more years contract.
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“I just said to them ‘listen, let’s break the contract. It has not worked the way we wanted. I will go somewhere else and I will continue to play football’.”
Ultimately the deal worked out for Willian with the star earning himself a return to London and a return to the Premier League when he signed for Fulham a year later.
Now he is excelling under Marco Silva for the Cottagers, but it wouldn’t have happened if he has listened to some of the people around him.
Willian explained that as a player heading into the twilight of his career, people were calling him “crazy” for walking away from his big-money deal with Arsenal.
He explained: “People were saying to me ‘you are crazy, you cannot give up this kind of money’.
“They were saying ‘any other player in your position would never do that. They would sit on the contract and collect the money’. Stuff like that.”
Willian explained that he isn’t motivated by cash: “But I don’t think about money. I know money is important, for sure. But it’s not the first thing in my life.
“For me, God first. Then my family, then football. Then the other things. But I wasn’t happy so that’s why I decided to leave.”
The two-time Premier League champion has even revealed that he would like to work as a football agent when he retires to help young players make the right decisions for their careers too.
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But his playing career hasn’t come to an end just yet with the star setting his eyes on a tough clash in the league this weekend.
Fulham travel to face high-flying Aston Villa on Saturday as they try and edge their way back towards the top half of the table.
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Joshua Hall
