It was August last year when Enzo Maresca told a 20-year-old Andrey Santos the route to the top and why - for now - it did not run through Chelsea.
Santos, Maresca said to him, had huge potential, but needed more minutes and playing time. He was off to Strasbourg for a year to play for Chelsea's sister club and evolve as a footballer.
The advice, prompted the best season of the attacking midfielder's life - 11 goals in 34 matches - and at the end of it a recall to the Brazil senior squad. Having first been called up in March 2023 by interim manager Ramon Menezes and starting a 2-1 friendly defeat by Morocco, he has made the first squad named by Carlo Ancelotti, the first foreign manager in the Selecao's history.
The only player younger than him in the squad? His new Chelsea team-mate, Estevao Willian, who will join this summer from Palmeiras having just turned 18 and already won four caps for his country.
Santos will get his chance in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June, and then he'll finally get his chance with Chelsea. Having shown what he can do in Ligue 1 under Liam Rosenior, he is expected to join up with the Blues when his international duty is over to travel to the United States for the Club World Cup.
'The only conversation I had was that I would play in the Club World Cup for Chelsea and after that we’ll see what happens,' Santos, now 21, tells Mail Sport from his residence in Paris. 'Everyone knows about my love, my desire to play for Chelsea.
'I think Enzo Maresca was very sincere with me, and I liked that sincerity. Also, when you look someone in the eye, when you're sincere, you build trust with the player. So I accepted that and went to Strasbourg to get minutes. And now, God willing, we'll see how it goes at the Club World Cup. I hope everything goes well.'
Not only did Strasbourg give Santos minutes, but also achievements on and off the field. Rosenior made him stand-in captain within three months of joining when usual skipper Habib Diarra was injured, has returned to the Brazilian national team and is now a father. His and partner Ingryd's son Anthony came to the world on February 7.
'Your mind, your life ends up changing, it's an inexplicable feeling,' he says. 'I heard several people saying it, my father saying it, but only those who experience it truly know.
'When you hear the first cry, when you hold him, give him his first bath, when he gives you his first bath. So I think it's an inexplicable thing. Only those who go through it know, so I think that also gave me a lot of fuel to give my best this season.'
The last few years have not been easy for the Brazilian. Santos joined Chelsea from Vasco da Gama for £18million in 2023, but did not receive a work visa for the UK and had to return to Vasco on loan until the end of the season.
When the visa came through that summer, he was loaned again to Nottingham Forest, but played just twice in all competitions under soon-to-be-sacked Steve Cooper before being recalled by Chelsea in January last year. On February 1, he was off on his third loan in the space of a year, to Strasbourg for the first time.
'It was a very difficult moment in my career – the beginning at Chelsea, with loans and no games at Forest, especially because I was very young,' he says. 'I was always ready to train, always fit to play, but unfortunately, I didn't get an opportunity there with the coach at Forest.
'But I never stopped working and I was sure that when the opportunity arose, which it did here at Strasbourg, I would be ready.
'I think the period I spent at Forest, learning and adapting, was fundamental for me to arrive here ready, to arrive here more experienced, let's say, despite how young I am.
'And of course, the mindset changes. I came with a staff, I came with a physical trainer, a cook, a nutritionist too. So I think every detail makes a big difference in football.
'The affection from Chelsea fans is something very special as well. Ever since the news broke that I was going to Chelsea, they started sending me a lot of messages. Back when I was at Vasco, too. And I had the spell at Nottingham, where I didn't play, but they sent me messages there too, I'd see some posts, they'd tag me on Instagram and Twitter.
'But I think during this spell at Strasbourg, they watched more. And since I played well, I think they're very anxious to see me playing for Chelsea, just as I'm very anxious to play there. I think that affection is fundamental for a player too.'
Santos credits his success to a good environment led by Liam Rosenior, who has a similar style of playing to Enzo Maresca.
'I'm happy to adapt well to this style of play, a style that likes to have possession, that likes vertical play,' says Santos, referring to Rosenior liking to get the ball forward quickly. 'So I think that helped me a lot because it combined my characteristics with Liam's work.
'I think with the group of young players, first year together, his work was very positive. I'm sure that with each passing year, Strasbourg will be stronger, because of the club's ambition, because of the coach's ambition to win, to always want to be at the top. I think we're on the right track.'
The Brazilian repeated more than one time that he wants to keep his feet on the ground in order to make things go his way.
On social media, he thanked Strasbourg and his fans for the reception and his first full season playing, mentioning he will miss them and the Stade de la Meinau.
A seventh-place finish will see Strasbourg play in the Conference League next season, though it would have been the Europa League had they not been beaten at home by relegation-threatened Le Havre on the final day.
Santos, who took up futsal at the age of four to lose weight and was initially a defender, credits his drive to his family support, with wife, son, father, mother and sister, and a complicated childhood, which made him mature a lot even before the two or three difficult years of adaptation.
'Now is the time to keep my feet on the ground, work harder to keep getting minutes and reach the highest possible level,' he says, as he prepares to join a cohort of South American wonderkids at Stamford Bridge this season that includes Estevao, Deivid Washington (both Brazil), Kendry Paez (Ecuador) and Aaron Anselmino (Argentina).
'I was born and raised in Vila Aliança, a community in Bangu (a neighbourhood in the west of Rio de Janeiro). Everyone, every young person, goes through difficulties.
'It was a very difficult time in my life, since I saw my parents crying because they couldn't do anything to change that situation.
'That was marked in my head, in my chest, in my memories, and I think that gave me strength to be able to follow my dream and be able to change that situation.
'Especially since most players come from a community, come from a very different reality. So, I think the first dream of most, mine was like that too, was always to take my parents out of the community, give them a house, give them better comfort.
'So, thank God, that goal was achieved, I fulfilled that objective I had since I was little in my heart, ever since I saw them working so hard.
'Sometimes, my father working two jobs. Sometimes, I couldn't see my father, because he worked so much.
'I'm very happy because it marked me a lot and today I see everything my parents did for me and for my sister.'
Now, at the age of 21 and ready to star for both Chelsea and Brazil, Andrey sees two World Cups ahead. Two big dreams on the verge of becoming reality.
