Chelsea legend Ricardo Carvalho was a guest at Monday night’s game against West Ham and admitted it was a special feeling to return to the place he called home for six years.
Carvalho left Stamford Bridge for Real Madrid in 2010 after a trophy-laden stay in west London which included three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups, enjoying more success in Spain before joining Monaco in 2013.
The 38-year-old was a part of Portugal’s Euro 2016 squad this summer before being released by Monaco and his now considering his next steps, but was delighted to watch our Premier League opener with his family on Monday, receiving a warm welcome from the fans at half-time.
‘After the Euros I am taking my time to think about my career. I am so happy with what I did and the teams I played for, so you have to think about the right moment to finish and I am thinking about it,’ Carvalho told Chelsea TV. ‘Maybe in one week I will decide, I will take one more week, and of course I have to listen to my body. It’s a difficult one because I want to play, I want to train, but you have to be prepared.
‘I left the club already six years ago, and they still remember me. I am so proud I played here for Chelsea. There are great memories I got from those years, and for my family too. They will always be special for me.’
Now an interested observer, he felt it was crucial for Antonio Conte’s men to kick the season off with a victory in a tough London derby.
‘I think it was a difficult one, the first one also, and it’s always important to win it, to start well and overall I think we deserved to win it,’ he said. ‘We had more chances to score, they scored from a corner - in the Premier League small details like that make a big difference, and of course to win it you need a bit of luck and Diego had a little bit in the end, but more than that he believed he could win the game.’
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