Felipe Anderson has cited former West Ham United players Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano and Paolo Di Canio as players who inspired him to join the club.
The 25-year-old signed for the Hammers in July in a club-record deal, penning a four-year contract at the London Stadium.
Anderson progressed through the youth ranks of the Santos academy before joining Lazio in 2013 and enjoyed a fruitful five-year stint in Serie A.
However, the Brazil international admits that the Premier League was always his ambition and insists that he is delighted to have linked up with the Hammers.
"It has been wonderful [since I arrived at West Ham]," Anderson told ESPN. "It's being better than I expected because I always believed it was going to be the best place to play football. Since I arrived, that's been confirmed. I was very well welcomed by the new teammates, the manager and the whole club. I'm very happy here.
"Since I was a kid I knew that [the Premier League] was the most important championship. Then when I started playing all the players said that it was the best, the most difficult, the most competitive. I wanted to come here to be among the best. I was following Tevez, Mascherano... I also followed Di Canio who played here a long time ago.
"I always followed the English championship a lot so when they told me about the possibility of coming here I did not think twice. I followed players like [Thierry] Henry, who made history here. When I was young, I would watch them and then Tevez, who did what he did and became an idol. I dream of reaching that kind of level."
West Ham have lost to Liverpool and Bournemouth in their first two Premier League matches of the 2018-19 campaign.
Giuseppe Labellarte
