Return is worth the risk for Luiz

DAVID LUIZ could have stayed at Paris Saint-Germain last summer. He was liked, had won two league titles and several cups, and had three years left on a £130,000-a-week contract.

Instead, the Brazilian chose to take a pay cut and risk returning to the country where he was once cruelly branded as “a player who looked like he was controlled by a 10-year-old on Playstation”.

That jibe came from Sky TV pundit Gary Neville in November 2011, during a defeat by Liverpool in his first spell at Stamford Bridge.

Today, with a Premier League winner’s medal in his pocket after a revelatory season and an FA Cup final looming, Luiz, 30, insists he did not return to prove anyone wrong but came back because he likes taking risks.

Luiz, who cost PSG a world record fee for a defender when he joined them for £50 million in June 2014 said: “I cut my salary to come back here. But it’s OK. God has given me a lot so I’m happy.”

Luiz was rumoured not to be in new PSG coach Unai Emery’s plans for the season when Chelsea came calling, and therefore keen to return. That might explain why his £32m deadline day move was finalised so quickly.

Another suggestion was that Chelsea were actually after his fellow Brazilian Marquinhos but were rebuffed. Whatever the reasons, back came Luiz, who had left with a reputation that marked him down as at best flamboyant but erratic.

He proceeded to turn that on its head with a season full of displays that have marked him down now as one of the world’s most gifted central defenders.

He is still a joker though. When asked how he had helped under Antonio Conte to transform Chelsea from 10th last year to champions and potential Double winners, he said: “I am the magic, no?”

But he added: “Of course not. It was not just me but everybody – the commitment, the desire, the mentality we put on the pitch every day. That’s why we deserve this. In two years in France I won all the titles there. I had a great life, great credibility.

“But I took a risk to come back to a country not that happy with me, where I was always criticised – even when I won the Champions League and Europa League, playing all the games. But I love it. If you don’t take risks in life you never feel something new.”

Clubmate Willian wants to stay and play Champions League football next season.

The Brazilian, 28, a target of his former manager Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, looked likely to be sold after spending most of the season on the bench.

He said, however: “I have a contract at Chelsea until 2020 and I am very happy.”