That player is Estevão.
“I think he's the biggest talent since Neymar,” Vickery told Football Presse. “I think he's a bigger talent even than Vini.”
That is some claim from the Brazilian football expert, particularly given the emergence of Vinícius Júnior and the huge expectations surrounding Endrick. But Vickery's belief in Estevão is not based simply on the hype surrounding a teenager who earned a big-money move to Chelsea.
He has seen something different.
“Estevão is a wonderful, wonderful player. Fabulous, fabulous talent.”
The judgement is shared by Abel Ferreira, the Palmeiras coach who also oversaw the development of Endrick before the striker moved to Real Madrid.
Vickery recalls Ferreira struggling to put Estevão's ability into conventional terms.
“He tried not to say it, but he was saying, you know, Estevão, he's different from anything I've ever seen, ever.”
That comparison is particularly significant because Ferreira has spent years working with elite young Brazilian talent. For him to regard Estevão as being on another level from Endrick is an extraordinary endorsement.
Vickery believes Estevão's importance to Brazil could have become apparent very quickly.
“Ancelotti just fell in love with him and made him important,” he said. “And it was Ancelotti who gave him his first place in the starting lineup.”
There was, Vickery insists, no doubt about where Estevão stood in Brazil's plans.
“There wasn't—there's no doubt about it at all, he would have been first choice for Brazil in the World Cup.”
Yet the very move intended to accelerate his development at club level has now created a concern.
Estevão chose Chelsea partly because the English club had been prepared to consider him as more than simply a winger. During negotiations, Vickery says, Chelsea were open to the possibility of using him as a No.10.
“That’s why he wanted to go to Chelsea, because Chelsea at the time were open to seeing him as a 10.”
That flexibility matters because Vickery believes Brazilian football has increasingly pushed its most gifted attacking players towards the wing.
“The clubs, what do they do with him? They pushed him wide as a winger.”
There is obvious logic to that. Wide players have more space to accelerate and can catch the eye quickly, making them attractive propositions in the transfer market.
But Vickery fears Estevão could now be asked to move even further away from the areas where his qualities can have the greatest impact.
The arrival of Xabi Alonso at Chelsea has changed the equation.
“Suddenly now that Xabi Alonso has taken over, that is a bit problematic because they've signed Morgan Rodgers.”
And then comes the concern.
“Xabi Alonso seems to want to play him as a wing-back. That's not going to work.”
Vickery is not making a tactical objection for its own sake. He is worried about what the wrong role could do to the trajectory of a player Brazil increasingly sees as its next great attacking hope.
“I am concerned now with Xabi Alonso because I don't want him to play as a wing-back, and he doesn't want to play the wing-back, and I don't think you get the best out of him as a wing-back.”
For a player of Estevão's age, the issue goes beyond whether he starts a particular game or where he is listed on the team sheet.
“Momentum is such an important thing,” Vickery said. “So I'm worried, a bit worried about him losing momentum.”
That is why Estevão's situation at Chelsea has become more significant than simply a question of formation.
Brazil has spent years searching for the next player capable of carrying its attacking tradition forward. Vickery believes it may have found him.
But now, after the injury that kept Estevão out of the World Cup and with a new manager determining his role at Chelsea, his development has reached an important crossroads.
“Up until that point,” Vickery said, “he certainly was Brazil's big hope.”
And the warning is clear: Brazil may have found its next great talent. Chelsea now have to make sure they allow him to become the player Vickery and Ferreira already believe he can be.