The agent of Jorginho has revealed Chelsea’s midfield maestro harbours “dreams” of returning to Italian football once his time at Stamford Bridge is up.
The Brazilian-born Italy international started his professional football career at Hellas Verona, then in Serie B before he helped guide them to promotion in 2013, but he truly made a name for himself (globally) at Napoli.
The metronomic midfielder was a key (arguably the key) component of then manager Maurizio Sarri’s famed ‘Sarrismo’ in Campania, in which Napoli came agonisingly close to ending their near three-decade wait for Serie A glory in 2017/18, just missing out on the Scudetto to Juventus.
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Following that highly-productive season at the Stadio San Paolo (now officially recognised as the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona) Sarri and Jorginho both left for Chelsea in the Premier League, with the latter still there to this day, and thriving as a potential Ballon d’Or candidate this year.
In 2021 alone, Jorginho has lifted the Champions League, a European Championship, the Super Cup, reached an FA Cup final, and helped guide Chelsea into the Premier League top four, with the 29-year-old now a crowd favourite at the Bridge after some initial scepticism from fans.
Jorginho has since revealed he was motivated by his doubters during his first season at Chelsea, in which fans took a while to warm to his often languid playing style, saying he wanted to “embarrass” the fans who branded him “Sarri’s son”, in reference to his close relationship with the Italian coach.
That first season now seems a distant memory — despite Chelsea winning the Europa League — with Jorginho now firmly established as undroppable in the Blues’ current set-up under Thomas Tuchel, but his agent, Joao Santos, has since revealed his client wants to return to Italy one day.
Santos told Radio Bianconera. “Obviously, it would be a dream for him to return to Italy, hopefully after winning the World Cup.
“We’ll have to see what the market looks like in a couple of years and what the other situations are.
“In the past, when Sarri was the coach, there was a possibility that Jorginho would come to Juventus.
“The Juventus director made an approach, it was a possibility.”