Monday 16 February 2015 15:51, UK
Paris Saint-Germain defender David Luiz has revealed that he was offered a new deal by Chelsea last summer but decided the time had come to move elsewhere.
However, the Brazilian defender denied that he sought a move due to a rift with Jose Mourinho and says he had no problems with the Chelsea boss.
Luiz joined Chelsea in 2011 and was a member of the team who won the 2012 Champions League but he was transferred to PSG for £50m last June, a world record fee for a defender.
And the 27-year-old will face his former team for the first time since then on Tuesday night when Chelsea will be in Paris for the first leg of a Champions League last-16 clash.
I had an amazing connection with the fans, my team mates, everyone at the club, but I decided my cycle was finished and I wanted to live a different moment now in my life.
Luiz told The Sun: “I decided to leave after the end of the season. Chelsea offered me a new contract and I said to them ‘I’m not feeling the same thing like I was feeling years ago.’
“I had an amazing connection with the fans, my team-mates, everyone at the club, but I decided my cycle was finished and I wanted to live a different moment now in my life.”
Luiz was sometimes left out after Mourinho arrived for his second stint at the club in the summer of 2013 but the defender added: “I was not playing as much as the previous season but I played all the big games – in different positions.
“People tried to make stories about me and Mourinho but we never had any history.
“Many times when he doesn’t put David Luiz in, people said there was a problem, but it was natural. I was very happy in Chelsea.”
However, Luiz agrees that Mourinho did not try especially strenuously to keep him at Stamford Bridge.
“I was not feeling good there and I said I wanted to leave,” said Luiz.
“He didn’t try too much because I was in Brazil for the World Cup and we just spoke on the telephone.
“He said ‘It’s OK, you can go’.”
Luiz is now hopeful his new team can master his old over the upcoming two matches, adding: “I want to qualify.
PSG have the quality to win the Champions League but we need to show it on the pitch.
“PSG have the quality to win the Champions League but we need to show it on the pitch.”
Luiz has also revealed that he had to pretend to be fit in order to play in the 2012 Champions League final, which the Blues dramatically won on penalties against Bayern Munich.
The defender had been out of action with a leg injury but, with John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic banned for the final, he was desperate to return to action.
And he told The Daily Telegraph that he instructed Chelsea's head physio Jason Palmer to pass him fit, even if that was not the case.
Luiz said: "I said to him, 'You know how I worked hard in my life to be here? You know when I left my family I was 14 years old? You know what it is for my life to be here?
"Then it's not for you to say I cannot play tomorrow.
"I will do the (fitness) test but even if I fail you go to (manager Roberto) Di Matteo and say to him that I play.'
"He said: 'No'.
"I said: You go there and you say to him. If not, I kill you. And tomorrow we will be champions of Europe, no problem'."
