Muniz has grown into the main man after a nudge from former Blue

THINGS may well have been very different for Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz had he not taken on board the advice of a former Chelsea player.

- Dom Smith

Muniz is the talk of the Premier League right now — the in-form striker in the top flight and its leading goalscorer since the start of February.

But without the intervention of Filipe Luis, he would probably not be in England at all.

Muniz was not a regular scorer for Flamengo in Brazil, but his performances, including a bicycle kick at the Maracana, were attracting interest in the summer of 2021. He wanted a big money move to Al-Nassr, but Flamengo team-mate Filipe Luis eulogised about his time at Chelsea and urged against leaving for Saudi Arabia.

So Muniz instead joined Fulham for £6.8million as an unproven 20-year-old striker who did not speak English and had everything to prove.