West Ham United news: Edimilson Fernandes living 'the dream' since leaving home for London
The 20-year-old midfielder opens up in his first interview in England about growing up in Switzerland and his famous footballing cousin
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Your support makes all the difference.Life is moving fast for Edimilson Fernandes. In the last week he has made his first start for West Ham United, and then scored his first goal. He has played immaculately first at left wing-back, then at right wing-back, neither of them the box-to-box role he wants. He has gone, in the space of a few days, from being the least known of West Ham’s summer signings to now being the most successful.
It is difficult for a 20-year-old, with limited English, who has only been in the country for two months, who is still staying at the Radisson Blu Edwardian in Canary Wharf. Fernandes’ family are still all back at home in Switzerland and have not even come to see him play yet.
All Fernandes has by way of a community here is West Ham’s many Francophone players: Dimitri Payet, Andre Ayew, Cheikhou Kouyate, Diafra Sakho and Sofiane Feghouli. “It really helps,” Fernandes says, in quiet French through an interpreter. “I did not realise there were so many French speakers here, but clearly it is going to be very helpful.”
It is easy to be glib about the challenges of being a highly-paid cossetted professional footballer, who has just made a £5.5million move to the most lucrative league in the world. But to meet Fernandes, at a West Ham United foundation event in Beckton, is to meet a young man still coming to terms with the way his world has changed.
The way Fernandes describes his career so far is striking for its honesty and humility, its contrast with the image footballers are often given. Fernandes made his debut for local club FC Sion at the age of 17, and admits that he was “very scared” to do so. He always wanted to come to the Premier League, having grown up watching it on telelvision. But despite his obvious talent, Fernandes “never imagined that it was possible”.
Then, this summer, when West Ham tried to sign Fernandes, Sion president Christian Consantin told him that the clubs had agreed a fee. “At first I was afraid of leaving my old club,” Fernandes says, with an openness about his feelings not many players would show. “But I took the plane over to West Ham. At first it was very scary here, but now it is great.”
Fernandes started his first West Ham game, against Accrington in the EFL Cup, before making brief substitute appearances against Southampton and Crystal Palace in the Premier League. It has only been this week that he has been given another start, on the left of Slaven Bilic’s 3-4-3 in the 1-0 win over Sunderland, and then on the right against Chelsea.
Both times Fernandes has shown why West Ham signed him, showcasing a rare mix of speed, strength and technical precision. He is an all-round player with an imposing frame, which is why he is unlikely to stay at wing-back for long. He sees his future in the centre, as a “number eight”, like Paul Pogba.
On Wednesday night Janssen scored a goal worthy of Pogba, picking up the ball on the right, cutting inside and driving it beyond Asmir Begovic into the far bottom corner. “It was like a dream come true to score,” he smiles.
While so much of what has happened to Fernandes is new to him, he does at least have someone close to talk him through it. Fernandes’ cousin Gelson moved from FC Sion to the Premier League, to Sven Goran Eriksson’s Manchester City, in 2007. He was 20, the same age that Edimilson is now.
Gelson is now 30 years old and in his third season at Rennes in France. But he speaks with Edimilson every day and advised him to do what he did at his age, and take the leap into English football. “I spoke to him about the Premier League, and he said it was one of the best leagues in the world,” Fernandes says. “Everything he said has come true, and I am using all the advice that he gave me.”
Everyone knows the importance of immigration from the former Yugoslavia, and especially Kosovo, to Swiss football. The story of the Fernandes family is different. Edimilson’s mother, Maria, and Gelson’s father Jose are siblings from Cape Verde, off the coast of west Africa. Gelson was five years ago when his family moved to Switzerland, and his father Jose eventually found a job as a groundsman at FC Sion, the club that his son and nephew would go on to play for.
Edimilson’s parents initially left Cape Verde for Portugal, where his brother was born, before moving on to Switzerland to join the rest of their family. “They left to go to Switzerland to find better jobs, a beter way of life,” Fernandes explains. “There is not much work in Cape Verde, or in Portgual.” Another branch of the family settled in Portugal, where another footballing cousin, Manuel Fernandes, formerly of Portsmouth and Everton, grew up.
Gelson and Edimilson’s branches of the Fernandes family grew up in Valais, the Swiss region best known for wine and ski resorts. Edimilson himself grew up in Fully, a small Alpine village not far from the French border.
While Gelson has been a fixture in the Swiss national side for years, Edimilson is still trying to follow him. He has impressed with the under-21s recently and earlier this month was in Vladimir Petkovic’s squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Hungary and Andorra. Edimilson did not play, but it was the first time he had formally trained with Gelson, which was a pleasure itself.
Switzerland meet up again next month, and have a qualifier against Faeroe Islands in Lucerne on 13 November. Fernandes insists that he is concentrating on West Ham but given how well he is playing for them, it would be very surprising if he does not make his international debut, finally playing alongside his cousin. Not that, in Edimilson’s mind, they are competing for one place. “I don’t play the same way as Gelson, I am more attacking than him,” Edimilson says. “But if I can do better than him in my career, that would be amazing.”
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