Higuain: 'Sarri gets best out of me'

By Football Italia staff

Gonzalo Higuain explained why he joined Chelsea after six months at Milan. “Maurizio Sarri knew how to work with me, particularly on the emotional side.”

He completed the transfer this evening, on loan from Juventus for €9m until the end of the season.

There is an option to extend the loan to June 2020 for €18m or to purchase him outright for €36m.

The Argentina international’s first comment was for Emiliano Sala, the Nantes striker who is missing presumed dead after his plane vanished from the radar while on his way to join Cardiff City.

“I send my strength. Hope is the last thing we can lose, so we have to hold out hope that they are somewhere. If that wasn’t to be the case, it would be a great loss,” Higuain told Chelseafc.com.

This transfer to Chelsea had been in the works for many months and had been an option before he went to Milan.

“It was an opportunity that when it presented itself, I couldn’t miss out on. I’m really excited to be here, to be working with Maurizio Sarri again and to be at a club with so much history.

“I’m just really happy to have completed the move and I hope to achieve all the goals which the club has set for itself between now and the end of the season.

“I’m someone who is always trying to improve, day after day. I think the most important thing is to be humble, even when we make mistakes, and so when that happens I will always try to rectify that and improve. For the rest, I’ll leave other people to give their opinions on me. I’m not someone who likes to talk too much about myself, but I’m someone who tries to improve, and get the best out of myself and my team, at every opportunity.”

Above all, Sarri was eager to reunite with Sarri, who worked with him at Napoli when he broke the Serie A scoring record with 36 goals in 35 games in 2015-16.

“Sarri is the Coach who, in my career, has got the best out of me as a player. He’s someone who knew how to work with me, particularly on the emotional side.

“That year together was fantastic and in big parts thanks to him, so coming to work with him is very important for me. I’m really happy to have been given the opportunity to do that and I want to get back to that level.

“It was a wonderful season and one in which I broke the goalscoring record, which is very important out there. It was a fantastic year for myself and Maurizio, and a period which we shared together, even though it was a short time.

“Now I’m just happy to be working with him again at a big club like Chelsea which has all the history and wonderful team-mates. I think everything is set on the right path to achieve our goals by the end of the season.

“It was my best year as a player and Jorginho is a wonderful midfielder who contributed to that. He’s also a very good friend of mine so it’s a real pleasure to once more be joining up with him, and I hope we can achieve great things together again.

“Always in football you have those targets to win great trophies, so I hope that’s going to be the case here. I feel very excited, with great hope and desire to achieve success with Chelsea.”

Pipita has been in Europe since 2007 with Real Madrid, then Napoli in 2013, Juventus in 2016 and six months at Milan in 2018.

“For a long time I’ve wanted to play in England but until now such a concrete opportunity hasn’t presented itself, so it was something I was never going to miss out on. It’s a huge challenge to come and play in the Premier League and I hope I’ll be able to settle in here at Chelsea. It’s a wonderful team and I hope we can bring a lot of happiness to the fans.

“Chelsea is a team who always has great players and as kids everybody watched the Premier League, so it’s a real dream for me to come and play in this league, having already played in three of the best leagues in the world, it’s a real source of pride for me and I hope to make the most of it.”

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