Willian has no regrets about leaving a significant sum of money behind when he terminated his Arsenal contract before moving to Fulham a year later. The Brazilian left Stamford Bridge in 2020 after a seven-year stint and managed to stay in London by signing a three-year deal with Arsenal as a free agent.
Despite earning a reported £240,000 per week, his time with the Gunners was short-lived, scoring just one goal in 37 games across all competitions. The club finished a disappointing eighth in the league and failed to qualify for any European competition for the first time since the 1994/95 season.
Even though he had two years remaining on his lucrative contract, which would have netted him £20.5million until 2023, Willian chose to leave the club and terminate his contract without asking for a pay-off. The two-time Premier League winner later revealed that he requested Arsenal to mutually end his contract, allowing him to return to Brazil and sign for his childhood club Corinthians.
He returned to the English top flight a year later with Fulham, where he spent two seasons and had nothing but praise for the club, reports Football London. He told The Telegraph: "When I left Arsenal everyone knows it was not good.
"It was a difficult year for me, I decided to leave and, at that time, I still had two more years contract and I just said to them 'listen, let's break the contract. It has not worked the way we wanted. I will go somewhere else and I will continue to play football'.
"I turned the situation around and, now, three years later I am at this club [Fulham], enjoying myself. It's an amazing club, to be honest." Currently at Olympiacos, the winger made a bold move by foregoing millions, a decision he stuck with despite being branded "crazy" by some.
He explained his comfort with the choice, as money wasn't his main concern. He said: "People were saying to me 'you are crazy, you cannot give up this kind of money'. They were saying 'any other player in your position would never do that. They would sit on the contract and collect the money'. Stuff like that.
"But I don't think about money. I know money is important, for sure. But it's not the first thing in my life. For me, God first. Then my family, then football. Then the other things. But I wasn't happy so that's why I decided to leave."
Willian's two old clubs meet on Sunday as Mikel Arteta's title-chasing Arsenal travel to Fulham, who are enjoying a decent season themselves and are up in 12th place.