Former West Ham player Wellington Paulista was presented by Chapecoense today. The player was loaned by Fluminense until the end of 2017.
After the air crash which killed 19 players, Chape obviously had to make several signings for the season, with many Brazilian clubs helping them out with the loan of players for free. As reported by Globo Esporte today, the club have signed 23 new players and promoted another 11 from the youth levels.
Wellington had a short spell at West Ham on loan from Cruzeiro in 2013. He spent the second half of the 2012/13 season at West Ham, but didn’t to make any official appearances and ended up only playing for the U23s. West Ham had a buying option over him at the end of the season, but chose not to to take it up.
“There is nothing else to talk about apart from that I am very honoured to wear Chapecoense’s shirt, for all that has happened obviously. I’ll do my best. My fear was to come and see players who were not committed, who came just to be able to show off in a very complicated situation that happened.
“But knowing the players that came and are here now, what I have to do is to dedicate myself and score the goals when we need them.”
Since leaving West Ham in 2013, Wellington has played for five other clubs, before signing for Chapecoense. Everyone will hope the player manages to make a bigger impact than he did at West Ham.
Slaven Bilic probably has a couple of his current squad he’d also like to send to help Chapecoense, and if it wasn’t for his third party owner’s wishes, it could be a good short term move for Jonathan Calleri.
