Bosingwa delighted to complete Chelsea switch

“Premiership has world’s best players. I need to be there”

He’s Portuguese, he’s called Jose and he’s joined Chelsea from FC Porto. Surely that’s a recipe for success, isn’t it?

Jose Bosingwa has described his move to English football as the realisation of a dream, after sealing a 20m euro transfer to Premiership side Chelsea.

The Portugal right-back, who has been linked with a big money switch for much of the last six months, completed his shock deal at Stamford Bridge on Monday, signing a five-year contract with the Champions League finalists.

“I’ve always had a dream to play in England - I always watched the Premier League as a child, I love the English game and now I’m here I’m going to work to do my best,” he said.

“To improve yourself you need to be playing alongside the best and the Premier League has the best players in the world so that is where I need to be. I had some time to think about it and I knew some clubs were interested in me and when I heard one was Chelsea, I thought okay.

“I played for a big team in Porto and now I’m going to a bigger team. My aim is to win titles. I have friends who are at Chelsea and it’s a club I feel I can improve at and grow as a player.

“I couldn’t speak to Ricardo Carvalho or Paulo Ferreira (former team-mates at Porto) before I signed because everything was done in secret, but now I am sure I am going to speak to them and they are going to help me get to know Chelsea better.

“I promise the fans that I am going to work very hard so every weekend they are going to leave the games happy. They can be sure I am going to work very hard so the team can be very successful with me.”

To cap a perfect day for the Kinshasa-born full-back, moments after giving his press conference in London Bosingwa was named by Luiz Felipe Scolari in Portugal’s Euro 2008 squad – his first appearance at a major international tournament.


Related: Jose Bosingwa PortuGOAL profile
Related: Scolari names Portugal’s Euro 2008 squad