The mere mention of David Luiz lights up the face of Joana Magali Lorente, the friendly woman who runs Café Brazil, a tiny establishment that sits almost directly opposite the Britannia Gate entrance to Stamford Bridge. “He used to come here every week,” she tells The Athletic with a warm smile.
Since opening its doors in 1993, Café Brazil has done well out of its proximity to Chelsea’s stadium, and particularly well out of the club’s Brazilian wave. Signed shirts from Willian, Jorginho, Ramires, Alex and Kenedy hang from the walls, along with pictures of Joana and her family with the players. Many have been regular visitors, bringing friends and family to enjoy the traditional cooking of Joana’s mother Dirce, who has been chef for 20 years. “Diego Costa would come in and go up to everyone and say hello, whether he knew them or not,” Joana laughs.
But one shirt enjoys pride of place above the counter where Joana spends her time when not flitting between tables: the No 30 that Luiz wore in his second spell at Chelsea. He loved Dirce’s cooking so much – particularly the picanha, or Brazilian-style steak – that he got her to cook for him at his home in Roehampton and both Joana and her mother were invited to Luiz’s famous fancy-dress birthday parties held at Under The Bridge, the club built into the stadium’s East Stand.
On match days Café Brazil limits its menu to pizzas and burgers for the sake of simplicity, while Dirce – still going strong at 81 – cooks and sells hot dogs to supporters from a stall outside. The pizzas are all named after Brazilian footballers. You can order the Garrincha (ham and pineapple), the Pele (pepperoni and mushrooms), the Willian (anchovies and olives, appropriately divisive) or, most intriguing of all, the Piazon (aubergine and courgette).
Luiz isn’t on the pizza menu but Café Brazil did sell a pasta dish named after him. According to Joana, Ramires suggested the pasta should be fusilli, in honour of his teammate’s trademark hair.
It’s clear there’s lasting affection for Luiz from the Lorentes but Joana has an air of trepidation as she contemplates him returning to Stamford Bridge for the first time as an Arsenal player on Tuesday. “We are still in touch with his mother but he has not been back since the move,” she says. “I don’t think he has been back to the area, because he left in a…” Her voice trails off, her eyes sad.
“I’m not going to answer that in the build-up to this game,” was Frank Lampard’s terse reply when asked ahead of Chelsea’s clash with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium last month why he had allowed Luiz to move to north London. It was the first time that the young head coach had opted to deviate from his usual affable – if carefully measured – tone in dealings with the media.
A few minutes later, he decided to elaborate a little. “Maybe I was a bit harsh not to answer (that) directly,” he admitted. “What I don’t want to do is look like it’s a personal question going into a game against a player I respect and played with. It was just a decision that was made and while I’m here there will be countless more of those.
“I certainly wish Luiz well. He was part of a Champions League-winning team with me, he played with half a hamstring in the final – I know that. He got himself fit when he was under pressure with the injury. I will always respect that. And he moves on.”
Luiz appears to bear no ill will towards Lampard either. “It was an individual decision made through honest conversation – between me and Frank Lampard, no-one else,” he said in an interview with Brazilian journalist Mauro Cezar in October. “We had a different idea of the future of the game and that’s why I chose to take a new path.”
As reported by The Athletic in September, the situation came to a head after Chelsea’s 5-3 win over Red Bull Salzburg in pre-season. Luiz gave up a free header to Jerome Junior Onguene from a corner and also angered Lampard by playing too many long passes out of defence, when the instruction from the new head coach was to prioritise playing out from the back.
Luiz was an unused substitute for Chelsea’s final friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach and, following his conversation with Lampard, his representative Kia Joorabchian moved quickly to drum up interest from Arsenal. Fikayo Tomori’s proposed loan move to Everton was cancelled and the Brazilian was given the green light to complete a transfer worth £8 million, less than three months after signing a new two-year contract at Stamford Bridge.
But while Lampard and Luiz may still be on reasonable terms, the sequence of events tainted the perception of the Brazilian among Chelsea supporters. Many viewed him as forcing the club’s hand with an act of selfish pique on the eve of what was anticipated to be a difficult season, even if in reality the desire for a parting was mutual. His decision to join Arsenal also attracted noticeably more criticism than Petr Cech had faced for requesting the same move four years earlier.
Luiz had left Chelsea once before, of course, joining Paris Saint-Germain in a £40 million deal in the summer of 2014. But that was a divorce in the best interests of all involved; he was not wired to be a centre-back in a José Mourinho team, the fee was, at the time, a world record for a defender and playing for PSG would mean partnering his Brazil teammate Thiago Silva on a weekly basis. It was not, as this was, a surprise move in the final days of a transfer window to a domestic rival.
“It’s always very difficult because of the rivalry but I made the decision to leave Chelsea even before receiving Arsenal’s bid,” Luiz told Cezar. “As soon as I decided to leave Chelsea – after a few days – Arsenal’s proposal came and, as it was another great club, I didn’t think twice. It’s hard for rivalry, yes but I couldn’t help but live a new story, in a new place, in a big club just because of the rivalry. A new moment has come in my career, a new cycle where I have had the opportunity to move to another major club, pursuing ambitions to win titles.
“I saw a possibility of writing a new story in a new place but I am forever grateful to Chelsea, to all people, to friendships that are for life. I get messages to this day from everyone at the club because what I had there was true.”
It was not the first time Luiz had been presented with the chance to cross a rivalry divide. In the summer of 2008, at the end of his first full season at Benfica, Porto offered to double his wages if he joined them. He flatly refused, insisting: “It’s not my style to spit on the plate I just ate from.”
Luiz’s loyalty to Benfica had strong foundations. Having sold established centre-back Ricardo Rocha to Tottenham in the final week of the January transfer window 18 months earlier, Benfica offered Luiz a six-month deal on the recommendation of his agent at the time, Giuliano Bertolucci. He was expected in Lisbon on the final day of the window but missed his flight after realising he had left his passport at his parents’ house in Diadema. He signed the contract in Brazil before his new club had even seen him play.
It was just as well; Luiz was suffering from a hernia at the time. “Simply put, I wouldn’t have passed a medical,” he said later in an interview with Brazilian magazine Veja. “I could hardly walk. But as I had signed a contract, I stayed in Portugal and recovered. It was a work of god in my life.”
Benfica also persisted with Luiz beyond his rocky debut – as a 35th-minute substitute for the injured Luisao in a UEFA Cup tie against Paris Saint-Germain. A 1-0 lead in the French capital turned into a 2-1 defeat, with the new recruit at fault for Pierre-Alain Frau’s winner. “I could have cut out the pass but I did nothing,” he recalled. “I went into the changing room at half-time thinking that they would put me on the first plane back to Brazil.
“Some of my team-mates looked at me with anger, others with pity. The coach (Fernando Santos) asked me if I wanted to come off. I told him I wanted to continue and I went to the toilet and prayed. After that, things went better. We lost, but I regained some confidence in the second half. I started the next game, played well and was one of the best players in the return leg against PSG.”
Religion has always been central to Luiz’s life. He was raised a devout Christian and re-committed to his faith in May 2015 by being baptised into Hillsong Church — the contemporary Christian megachurch that boasts Justin Bieber and the Kardashians as attendees — in the swimming pool of PSG teammate Maxwell. He regularly attends services in London.
But the strength in Luiz’s character does not spring solely from his faith. Adversity in Brazil hardened him, and he had not come so far to allow one bad performance end his career in Europe before it had begun. Released by Sao Paulo as a teenager because he was considered too short, his parents took out a loan so he could fly the 1,500 kilometres to Salvador for a trial with Vitoria. He was on the verge of being let go there too until Under-18 coach Joao Paulo Sampaio shifted him from central midfield to centre-back.
“He was suffering from growing pains at the time and he also struggled to play with his back to goal in the middle of the park,” Sampaio tells The Athletic. “We ended up playing with three at the back; David was the libero, with licence to start attacks. He was a very technical player, very daring. He struck the ball very well. Technically, he stood out: he was two-footed and had great control.
“He was a real extrovert. Very confident, always messing about – the kind of player who grabs your attention. He was a leader. Everyone liked the happiness that he radiated.”
The move to centre-back accelerated Luiz’s development rapidly and, in the summer of 2009, less than three years after leaving Vitoria and within a year of turning down Porto, he was appointed Benfica’s vice-captain by new coach Jorge Jesus. A first Portuguese league title triumph in five years followed, with Luiz being named the competition’s player of the year.
By the time Chelsea paid €25 million to bring him to Stamford Bridge in January 2011, he was one of Europe’s most coveted defenders and had earned lasting hero status at Estadio da Luz.
The version of Luiz that arrived at Arsenal in August 2019 was fully formed, for better and worse. It is a remarkable fact that no centre-back in the history of football has commanded more money in transfer fees. A combined £103.6 million puts him above Leonardo Bonucci, Harry Maguire, Virgil van Dijk and Matthijs de Ligt, who complete the top five.
Luiz turned out to be a bargain for Benfica and two spells at Chelsea punctuated by a stint at PSG amplified the sense of the player Luiz is: a big character who relishes being on the ball even if that means enduring the occasional mishaps that come with his innate preference for passing over destroying.
Stylistically, he has never changed. It is hard to escape that sense that he is somehow a midfielder dressed in a defender’s clothing. There is a trade-off. If you want the personality and some excellent performances, you also have to accept the sudden absence sometimes of the defensive fundamentals. Coaches need to be flexible to best accommodate him – Antonio Conte put him in position to flourish in a back three with ample protection.
For Arsenal, signing him was a no-brainer. Suddenly confronted with a shortage of experience in the heart of the defence with the unexpected departure of Laurent Koscielny last summer, they had to act fast but also cheaply. The connections were super smooth; Joorabchian represents Luiz and has a close relationship with Edu, Arsenal’s technical director. He brought immediate Premier League experience.
He made a warm, bright first impression in the squad. The sunny nature that shines through is infectious. Put simply, everybody around London Colney loves having him around. The fact his charisma could be a positive influence on the dressing room was part of the attraction of bringing him into the club.
He is polite, relaxed, motivated, and likes those qualities to rub off on people. He is one of those who cuts across all the groups within the dressing room to get along with everybody. He is particularly close to his teenage compatriot Gabriel Martinelli and wants to guide him along as much as he can. Luiz is always there for a chat with any of the young players.
“I just try to do my best to improve the club, inside and outside the pitch and I want to see this club shining again,” he said on arrival at Arsenal. “That is my motivation. I do it with pleasure. That is what people are going to see if they look in my eyes.”
He is the most decorated player in the dressing room so brings an experience of winning that is otherwise lacking. Four league titles in three different countries and a Champions League title stand out on a personal honours list that totals 16 winners’ medals. As his new defensive partner Sokratis says: “He is a player with experience of playing in big teams and we need that character that you get from players like him.”
Now for the downside. In a team that has struggled defensively, a cluster of individual errors on the pitch at the start of Arsenal’s season clanged. He needlessly gave away a penalty at Anfield and a positional mistake gave away a goal in the North London derby. Luiz was dropped for a couple of matches when Freddie Ljungberg took temporary charge, only to quickly regain his spot with the arrival of Mikel Arteta.
At Arsenal there is no evidence yet of the issues that flared occasionally at Chelsea. Perhaps that says more about the levels of accountability at the two clubs than anything else. Arsenal are unfortunately accustomed to players who make errors and get back out there to have another go because it has been that way for years. That may be changing under Arteta, as the new coach has strong ideas about minimum acceptable standards, but Luiz has swiftly become of great importance to the new boss.
Arteta learned the craft of coaching from Pep Guardiola, himself a disciple of Johan Cruyff. The style of football that has become dogma at Barcelona’s La Masia academy is dependent on having good passers at the base of the team and there are few better out of defence than Luiz.
When Unai Emery’s Arsenal played out from the back, it could appear somewhat aimless. What Guardiola’s teams have done — and what Arteta’s Arsenal are now showing signs of emulating — is strategic passing, pinging the ball across the defensive line to distort the opposition’s shape and create space. As Guardiola puts it, “the intention is not to move the ball but move the opponent”.
Luiz has the requisite technique and intelligence to engage in this game of cat and mouse. He has made more than 1,000 passes this season, the highest of any player at Arsenal. Intriguingly, he is making over 20 more passes per game under Arteta (72) than he did under Emery (49). His ball retention skills are, by and large, outstanding. There is, however, another valuable weapon in his armoury: the capacity to penetrate.
The ultimate aim of those sideways passes and shuffling movement is to create a channel to advance the ball up the field. This is where the Brazilian excels. Only three centre-backs in the Premier League have managed more passes into the final third than Luiz’s 148: Virgil van Dijk (151), Toby Alderweireld (171) and Lewis Dunk (178).
The principle is simple. In a 2007 coaching seminar, Guardiola explained: “Cruyff used to tell me, ‘When you have the ball, first you look for the deepest player’”. The player in possession’s first thought should be to pick out a team-mate in as advanced an attacking position as possible, who in turn can lay the ball on for a third man on the move. “Look deep, lay off, open up” — it is one of the central mantras of La Masia.
It makes sense that Arteta should embrace this philosophy at Arsenal, especially given that going back to front so quickly keeps players behind the ball and acts as an insurance policy against counter-attacks. If Luiz’s passing bypasses the midfield, the risk is reduced — if the pass goes awry, there will still be protection in front of him. Hence the more licence he’s granted on the ball, the more secure he seems to look.
Luiz finished Arsenal’s recent match against Crystal Palace with 13 passes into the final third — not even Mesut Ozil could match that tally. The goal Arsenal scored was a perfect example of what Luiz’s central role in Arteta’s plan: an incisive pass from the halfway line into the feet of Ozil, creating an overload in an attacking area from which Arsenal profited.
It has quickly become a cornerstone of Arsenal’s play. Luiz is averaging 15 long passes per game under Arteta, a significantly higher number than under any other of his 10 Premier League managers. It takes a certain type of player to shoulder that kind of playmaking responsibility. The ability is only part of it — it has to be married with vision and confidence, and Luiz has both in spades.
Luiz played well even as Arsenal ultimately surrendered a one-goal lead to lose 2-1 against Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium last month. The adversity he has faced in his career has never kept him down for long and, if he does get a rough reception from Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, it would not be a surprise to see him respond with a suitably defiant performance. This is, after all, the man who celebrated wildly when his thunderous header in front of The Shed End sent PSG into the Champions League quarter-finals at Chelsea’s expense in 2015 – though he later apologised for doing so.
“I appreciate his qualities as a man,” Maurizio Sarri said of Luiz in September 2018. “He is direct. If he has to say something to the manager, to say to me, then he goes directly to me.” It’s fair to say that Conte had less appreciation for Luiz’s forthright manner when the Brazilian voiced his disagreement with Chelsea’s defensive tactics in a 3-0 away loss to Roma in the Champions League group stage. It was effectively the end of their relationship.
There was also the perception across both of his spells at Chelsea that Luiz was too often unwilling to take responsibility for his own mistakes. One memorable early example was the sight of him shrugging at a furious Carlo Ancelotti on the Old Trafford sidelines in May 2011 after his poor body position had helped ease Javier Hernandez’s path to goal in the first minute of a match that effectively decided the Premier League title race in Manchester United’s favour.
Perhaps that is because Luiz has always taken criticism to heart more than he lets on. Gary Neville’s infamous ‘Playstation footballer’ barb made him noticeably less willing to engage with the British media for much of his first spell in England, while many in the Brazilian press were also given the cold shoulder after he found himself the predictable scapegoat for his country’s unprecedented 7-1 humiliation at the hands of a ruthless Germany in the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup.
But he still has far more fans at Chelsea than critics. Many at Cobham remember Luiz with genuine affection as a man who made time for and took an interest in everyone, to the extent that his endless conversations in the canteen and other communal areas would often make him last to leave the training ground. At every community event or hospital visit he immediately established a rapport with children and adults alike, often cemented with a warm hug.
His goofy sense of mischief also shone through. There was a running gag with a burly Cobham security guard which consisted of Luiz winding down his car window, shouting, ‘HEY UGLY!’ until the man turned around, then driving off. Chelsea TV presenter Lee Parker was frequently tackled to the floor during broadcasts to camera and, on one occasion, staff involved in a casual 5-a-side game spotted Luiz filming their exploits from the sidelines while supplying his own animated commentary.
Many were invited to Luiz’s extravagant birthday parties, as well as to dinner at Babbo, the Mayfair restaurant he owns with Willian. He also became an avid supporter of Chelsea Women, attending matches at Kingsmeadow, discussing their recent results whenever he came across Emma Hayes or any of her players in the first-team building and including them in his social events.
It would be a shame if resentment from Chelsea supporters towards Luiz lingered beyond his career as an Arsenal player. Aside from his personality, he is a player who lifted every major domestic and European trophy in six and a half years across two spells at Stamford Bridge.
His importance to Conte’s title-winning team in 2016/17 was merely the cherry on the cake of his legacy. Having defied medical expectations to even make it onto the pitch with a badly injured hamstring in Munich in 2012, he performed heroically to keep Bayern at bay alongside a similarly hobbled Gary Cahill for 120 minutes, then lashed in a penalty of astonishing defiance to turn the momentum of the shootout. On that basis alone he is a Chelsea legend.
But even if Stamford Bridge is not quite ready to show its appreciation for their hero-turned-rival on Tuesday, Luiz will find he still has plenty of friends at Chelsea.
(Photo: Visionhaus)
