The Fluminense fans here in the United States for the Club World Cup will tell you that Chelsea’s newest signing from Brighton is a ‘Moleque de Xerem’.

In English, that means ‘Boy from Xerem’, the name of the neighbourhood where their team trains close to Rio de Janeiro.

Scouted by a chap called Luiz Felipe at a competition in the Sao Paulo municipality of Valparaiso, Joao Pedro joined the Brazilian club at 11 years of age. As Marcelo Veiga, Fluminense’s youth technical coordinator, tells Mail Sport, ‘JP’ had some growing to do after arriving as a skinny kid.

‘He was on the bench and sometimes wasn’t even called up for matches, which caused insecurity for both him and his family, especially his mother, Flavia, who is by the way a warrior who always believed in her son’s potential.

‘I remember a conversation I had with JP’s mother and his late stepfather, on the parking ramp of the training centre in Xerem. It was around the time she was very distressed because he wasn’t playing.

Joao Pedro is closing in on a move from Brighton to Chelsea for a fee that could rise to £60m

He has impressed at Brighton since joining the Seagulls for a club record fee back in 2023

The forward came through at Fluminense, who could play Chelsea in the Club World Cup

‘I calmed her down, saying that we should be patient. Flavia believed in the club, supported her son, and was certainly a fundamental person for everything to work out. When the family acts like that, it bears fruit.’

Flavia has indeed been a source of strength in her son’s life and while he had some growing to do physically at Fluminense, mentally he had already faced challenges that you would not wish upon any child.

Pedro was only a baby when his father, Jose Joao de Jesus, better known as Chicao in Botafogo where he played football professionally as a defensive midfielder, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2002 for being an accessory to murder. Serving eight years, that left Joao Pedro to be raised by his mother, Flavia.

Upon his release at the age of 31 after his incarceration, Chicao participated in a Brazilian television report as he aimed to return to playing professionally.

It showed him embracing his son, Joao Pedro, who told the cameras: ‘I have always wanted to be on the pitch with my dad. I’m going to achieve that. My sister always wanted to play with him, and so did I. But we couldn’t, because he was in prison.’

It is not known whether Joao Pedro and Chicao are in touch today, but he is close to Flavia, that pillar of strength whose financial difficulties in his youth only bolstered his desire to become a footballer so that he could give her the life he felt she deserved.

You may have noticed how we are repeating ‘Joao Pedro’ in its entirety. Usually, in newspaper reports, we use the player’s full name at the first mention and then his surname from then on. As is custom in Brazil, however, ‘Joao Pedro’ are his two Christian names, and as one reader stressed in an email: ‘Calling him ‘Pedro’ makes as much sense as calling Pope John Paul ‘Paul’.’

Hence why you should get to seeing him full-named as Joao Pedro whenever referenced, though his new Chelsea team-mates will likely refer to him as ‘JP’, as was the case at Brighton.

The forward faced adversity in his childhood when his dad was sentenced to 16 years in prison

Joao Pedro was initially ‘very thin’ and weak but soon thrived and earned a move to Watford 

Though Chelsea are signing Joao Pedro to be a versatile attacker across Enzo Maresca’s front line, he used to play as a defensive midfielder, like his old man. It was while playing in that position that he was picked up by Fluminense at a time when Santos, Corinthians and Sao Paulo were also apparently interested.

‘At the time, although I was the technical coordinator, I took over the Under 17s team for a period because the coach had gone to Fluminense’s project in Slovakia,’ Veiga continues. ‘JP had already performed several roles during his development phase at the club. But I saw in him a great capacity for finishing, for scoring goals.

‘He had the gift. So I started to train his heading. He must remember. We did basic heading drills until we increased their complexity and moved him to the No 9 position.

‘He was a centre forward who also knew how to use space with presence in the box, played the pivot role well, and turned his body equally well, dribbling past opponents.

‘I gave him an opportunity, and in the debut of the Campeonato Carioca, he scored five goals. From then on, he kept scoring one after another, developing more and more.

‘Then came his physical maturation. He started to bulk up, to become strong and fast, and had a great ascent. He was the top scorer of the Under 17s, played for the Under 20s, and went up to the professional team, where he scored headers, which filled me with pride.

‘He, who until then had barely put his head to the ball, was now getting good headers.’

It was at Fluminense where Joao Pedro saw his friend Richarlison earn his move to England, moving to Watford in 2017 for around £11.2million. It was the same club who would win the race for Joao Pedro for a similar fee, beating Manchester United, Liverpool and more to his signature.

The forward always dreamed of playing in the Premier League but he had to work hard for it

Joao Pedro followed his close friend Richarlison when he moved from Fluminense to Watford 

Playing in the Premier League was his dream, though that opportunity was still some time away. Watford signed him in October 2018, but he would have to wait a year for his work permit to be granted. Joao Pedro could only continue to impress for Fluminense in the meantime.

For example, it was in May 2019 when he scored a 30-minute hat-trick on his first start in the Copa Sudamericana (the South American equivalent of the Europa League) against Atletico Nacional of Colombia. It was a perfect one, too – header, left foot, right foot – as they won 4-1.

The supporters started singing: ‘You’re screwed! Joao Pedro is deadly!’

His manager, Fernando Diniz, said afterwards that what he had witnessed was akin to something you would see from Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, and nobody else.

It was in December 2019 when Joao Pedro finally flew to England with his mother, Flavia, and other close family members, not including his father. As you can imagine, adjusting to this new way of life was hard.

The chaos of Covid ensued soon after his entrance at Watford and naturally he had traded the heat and humidity of Rio de Janeiro for, well, Hertfordshire.

In his first training session, he wore a snood up to his eyes, and in his first appearance – a 3-3 draw with Tranmere Rovers in the FA Cup third round – he had gloves and long sleeves.

His first goal arrived in September 2020, against Luton Town when Watford had been relegated to the Championship. He helped get them back to the Premier League with nine goals that season.

Pedro’s form at Watford saw him join Brighton and he has 30 goals and 10 assists in 70 games

The 23-year-old has won three caps for Brazil and will hope to be at next summer’s World Cup

Joao Pedro won his move to Brighton in May 2023. The fee was never disclosed but it was a club record, believed to be £30m, potentially rising to £35m. He impressed enough there to go on to wear the No 9 shirt for Brazil, which made Flavia and Seagulls staff immensely proud.

He now has three caps, and a move to Chelsea will not hurt his chances of being noticed for Carlo Ancelotti’s 2026 World Cup squad, even if he has to battle Nicolas Jackson and fellow summer arrival Liam Delap for a starting role.

The chances are you have heard the odd story on Joao Pedro’s tetchy temperament.

Some instances of it we have seen, such as the time he somehow escaped punishment for swinging an elbow at Brentford’s Yehor Yarmolyuk or the red he did receive for reacting in a tussle with Nathan Collins of the same opponents. Others we have not seen, like the training-ground altercation with his Brighton team-mate Jan Paul van Hecke which saw him internally disciplined as he missed last season’s run-in under Fabian Hurzeler.

You might think a few folks at Brighton would think they are getting a remarkably good deal, especially as they insist they are receiving £55m rising to £60m with add-ons and a healthy sell-on clause.

You would be wrong.

Sources within the Brighton setup are sad to see him leave even for that chunk of change and only had positive remarks to make when asked for an assessment of his personality by Mail Sport.

They describe him as a good guy, a misunderstood soul, a supreme talent. Sure, Joao Pedro can be prone to caving to frustration, as above, but he has been working on channelling that.

There have been some issues with Joao Pedro’s temperament but he is viewed fondly at Brighton and sources only had positive remarks to make when asked about his personality

He is set to compete with Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap for a starting role at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea could do with him using his passion in a proper way moving forward, particularly as they already have a few players such as Jackson and Delap who love an unnecessary yellow card.

Brighton insiders add Joao Pedro’s ability cannot be questioned. At his best, he can do things that others cannot, both in games and in training, and Seagulls fans will never forget the winner he scored versus Marseille to ensure they topped their Europa League group in December 2023.

They wish him well for the future now that he is becoming Chelsea’s newest Brazilian boy at the age of 23. Like Richarlison did with him, Joao Pedro will be in a position to help mentor Estevao Willian, the 18-year-old wonderkid who is set to arrive at Cobham this summer after his Club World Cup campaign with Palmeiras – Chelsea’s quarter-final opponents – has ended.

Joao Pedro flew from Brazil to the United States on Sunday evening to complete his medical, meet his new team-mates in Miami and be added to their squad for this competition’s knockout stages.

If Chelsea can get past Palmeiras on Friday in Philadelphia, they would face Fluminense in the semis in New Jersey, so long as they defeat the Al Hilal team that stunned Manchester City this week.

Given where it all started, Joao Pedro could hardly have wished for a more poetic debut.