Translator's Foreword:
Nani, a talented winger of Portugal's post-85 generation of gold, is a disciple of Cristiano Ronaldo, along with another talented winger, Quaresma, and is known as the "Three Masters of Sport in Portugal". Unconsciously, Nani is also 33 years old, but the Chinese fans who understand him may be limited to "c Ronaldo substitute", "one of the four dark kings of the Red Devils is unhappy" and other ridiculous nicknames, but few people will feel that Nani is actually not as star-studded as the brother c Ronaldo, but his career is also good, at least 4 Premier League champions, 1 Champions League champion, 1 European Cup champion He has a pivotal position in the winning team. At the same time, he also won the best player in the 2010-11 season and was selected for the PFA season's best team in the post-Ronaldo era of Manchester United. Nani was interviewed in an in-depth interview with tribuna expresso, the Portuguese sports weekly newspaper, in which he revealed his life in the United States, his childhood life, his experience of playing football as a teenager, his experience of playing football in England, Spain, Portugal and other places, as well as some mental journeys such as the story of Ronaldo and Sir Ferguson - not so much an interview, but more of a sharing of Nani's personal biography.
This article is a compilation of interviews about his life in the United States, his childhood family life, and the opening of his teenage green dream.
i. Life in the United States
Q: You've been playing in the U.S. since February 2019, do you like life there? What do you expect from your trip to the UNITED STATES?
A: I love life there, in fact, before that, the United States was a magical country that I had always aspired to, so my trip to the United States was always full of beauty, joy and motivation, and because Orlando City welcomed me very well, the team's goals were very impressive.
Q: Does life in the United States make you feel different from playing in Europe?
A: Sure, it's a long way from home, and it's left my friends and everything familiar with my previous life. After all, it is on the other side of the world, and you will still have the feeling of being alone in a foreign land. But a few months after I arrived, the feeling slowly disappeared, and now that I'm fully accustomed to life here, I'm very happy.
Q: So now you're also adapting to football here?
A: Yes. It was a test for me at first, because the weather in Orlando was hot and the humidity was high, which was difficult for a player who had been playing in Europe for many years and had just arrived, and it was difficult for him to play with his talent and standards. But now that I've overcome the weather, Orlando is like home to me, and everything makes me feel at ease.
Nani performed well in the MLB and was named to the 2019 All-Star Team
Q: Is your daily life playing football abroad very different from that in your hometown?
A: Honestly, everyday life in Portugal is unmatched anywhere in the world, where you have it all: your friends and where you grew up, you know Lisbon better than anyone else; at the same time you don't feel empty every day: you have the time and motivation to walk around, have coffee with friends, siblings or cousins, and in Portugal there are always people who meet you to make you feel full of life. In foreign countries, your life trajectory is the stadium-residence, the residence-stadium, and one day it is enough that you do something different from this life trajectory.
Oriol Roselle said of Nani's joining: Welcome home again, buddy!
Q: Are there any players in Orlando who have a very good relationship with you? That is, the kind of friends who can chat together and party and eat together.
A: Yes. Oriol Roselle is one of them. I knew him when I returned to Portugal On Loan to play at Sport in 2014-15 and thought he was a good buddy. That's why when I came to Orlando to play, we soon met for dinner, and Oriole took me to get acquainted with the club and Orlando culture. Of course, the other teammates are very friendly and respectful to me, and there are no complicated interpersonal relationships here.
Nani and his wife celebrate the birthday of their son Lucas
Share the joy of victory with your son
Q: Are your wife and children adapting to life in the United States?
A: They adapted very well, especially my son. Orlando is a dream park for every child because there's Disney, Mickey Mouse, and playgrounds. But I really didn't have time to accompany my kids to Disney, most of the time it was my wife who accompanied him to play, and they had a lot of fun. I think I gave the kids and his mom the time to have fun first, and then I would take the time to go with them and get to know Disney by the way. Because Disney will leave a good memory for every child and even an adult's life. And I made the trade-off here, I let my wife play that role, and I focused on training and playing. We think that we divide the work in this way, so that the family life in the United States is very harmonious and happy.
ii． The son of football from a poor Cape Verde immigrant family
Q: You were born in Lisbon and raised in Amadora, yet you are a descendant of Cape Verde. Can you tell us about your family?
A: My father was in Cape Verde at the time, and on a trip from Cape Verde to Portugal, he was unable to return due to documents and other reasons. So he stayed there and started a family to continue living.
Q: How long did he stay in Cape Verde?
A: 5 or 6 years.
Q: What about your mother?
A: My mother came to Portugal from Cape Verde at a very young age, and she worked very hard in restaurants, doing her best to survive and adapt. Then she had a lot of kids, and she had to work hard.
Nani and his parents and brothers; front row, first from right: Nani in childhood
Q: How many children do your parents have, including you?
A: There are 16 of them.
(Note: Nani's mother had 8 children, all of whom were born to his father; and after his father stayed in Cape Verde and could not return, he married a second marriage and had 8 children)
Q: Are you the youngest one?
A: On my mother's side of the children, yes, we have 8 brothers in total, and my brothers grew up with me throughout my childhood. Almost all of us grew up in Portugal, and 1 or 2 of us went to the Netherlands as teenagers. On my father's side, I only have a half-sister, she was also born and raised in Portugal, and I met her when I was 15 or 16 years old, and I went to her house. At the age of 18 I went to Cape Verde to find my father, who had lived there.
Q: Was it the first time you were reunited with your father after you were 5 years old?
A: Yes, I met him again in Saint Vincent, thanks to a man close to Portuguese sports, Mr. Agustino Abad, who arranged the trip for me. This well-wisher also had the opportunity to make some public contributions to Cape Verde, and he knew about Cape Verde before.
Q: I think it must have been a very exciting thing for you to see your father again in 13 years?
A: Yes, it was only when I reunited with him that I realized that my father was very old.
Q: Is he the person you've been looking forward to meeting?
A: That's fine. I didn't ask him what to explain, we didn't say much, we just stayed together like nothing had happened in our previous separate lives.
Q: So you've been living with your mother?
A: I lived with her until I was 13 or 14 years old, and my life changed again and we had to move. We moved several times, and the only thing I really wanted to do was to stay at my aunt's house.
Q: Did you grow up in the Santa Philomena district of Almadeo? (Note: Almado is a satellite city in the Lisbon region)
A: Not really, I grew up in the neighborhood next to this district, but it's very close to Santa Feromena, and there are certain parts of this neighborhood that belong here. I grew up playing with my friends here and getting to know each other well. There is a square open space in the block that is our football field, where we often play football together.
Front row left: Nani, who was a child and his friends, represented the community soccer team
Q: That's where your football started?
A: Yes.
Q: Is there anyone in your family who has anything to do with football?
A: One of my older brothers, Paul Roberto, who is 5 years older than me. When my father was in Cape Verde, he played the role of father, teaching me everything except those he thought were bad things not to be seen or touched. He also has a good point, which is that he likes to watch me play football. We looked around for a place to play, and whenever we wanted to, it was a pitch anywhere, and we could play with stones on both sides.
Q: When you were a kid, which team did you support?
A: When I was learning to speak, my father always said that I could pronounce "quica" (the nickname for the pronunciation of benfica for a child), and he was a Benfica fan. But actually I really don't remember. My brother Roberto is a Port city fan. One time Porto won the league and they were celebrating while I was following him to join in the fun, and he suddenly said to me, "You know what? Porto is the best club in the world, forget about the other teams! Come and support Porto as much as I do! Porto are champions! Then I saw the people jumping up and down in the carnival shouting: "Porto is the champion!" Benfica is rotten at the bottom of the box! "I was still holding my ground, but I had to shout with everyone that Porto is the champion. (At this point, Nani couldn't help but smile.) Indeed, after that, there was a time when I supported Porto with my brother. Then when I grew up, I was selected into the youth echelon of Portuguese sports again, and from then on, I realized that my love and care was the same for Portuguese sports that accepted me and gave me the path of my dreams, because it allowed me to grow and achieve myself.
Q: Did you like going to school at that time?
A: Like is like, but I really don't like to spend too much time on school homework because I like to play football too much. In fact, I am a lively and active child, and I like all kinds of sports activities, so being a nerd is not what I like. But my teachers say I'm smart, and reading or something won't bother me. If I want to, I can be a school bully very quickly (Nani smiles again). I remember when I was 12 or 13 years old, my teacher said, "If you study hard every day, you will definitely have something to achieve." ”
iii. The beginning of the green dream of a football teenager
Q: I heard that before signing for Sporting Portugal, you were in the junior echelon of the Royal Sports Club, what was it like?
A: One day I was playing on the street and I saw a bunch of friends passing by, and I asked them where they were going, and they answered me: "Let's go to a club in Krusch for a trial, are you going to come over and join us?" "I've got to ask my mom," I replied to them. So I went home and asked my mother for advice, and she almost didn't let me go, but I still wore a sports tee and shorts and followed my friends to try out. I remember I went there and trained for 5 to 10 minutes, and a coach called me down, handed me the papers in front of me and said, "Sign up here." ”
Nani playing in the Royal Sports Club's Junior Echelon (front row, third from right)
Q: You don't know what to sign, do you?
A: I realized they wanted me to stay, but I really didn't know what it was that was signed. I stayed behind to train with my friends, but I didn't have a contract. Later, the club still helped me deal with these things and let me stay at the Royal Sports Club. I trained very hard here and didn't fall behind.
Q: Do your brothers see you playing for The Royal Sports Club?
A: Yes, Roberto, he watched me play a lot, it can be said that he was like my father who encouraged and supported me on the sidelines, while other children were accompanied by their fathers from home to the field. I remember a particularly interesting experience against the Benfica Junior Team in the Cup Semifinals, where whoever wins can make it to the final, where we were just a small club and I was only 9 years old. Benfica are very strong, and of course we are not bad, we just never won them. We played confidently in that game, although we were 0:1 behind at the beginning, but after half-time we overtook 2:1, Benfica fought back like crazy at this time, pinning us to death in our own half, and they tried to shoot and cross the point, until finally the referee blew the whistle, our team except the father of all my children ran to the field to celebrate with the children, and my brother Roberto ran to me and hugged me, at this moment, I felt that I had fatherly love.
Nani (fifth from left in the front row) with teammates from the community team
Q: Can you tell us about Mr. Mustafa, who helped you a lot in the football path of your childhood?
A: Mr Mustafa is a sports fan. The football pitch in our neighborhood was right next to his house and he always liked to watch us play by the window and praised and encouraged us. Because he loves football, he took the lead in putting the children in our neighborhood into a community soccer team and playing against other neighborhood teams. He took good care of us and also provided me with games uniforms, shoes and other equipment, which was really kind and reassuring with him. Because he knew that I was the farthest living and a poor child of immigrants, he took special care of me. At the same time he was a wise man, always speaking with wisdom.
Q: What impressed you about him?
A: Once when we were playing against teams in other neighborhoods here, when we entered the stadium along the trail, we actually found that there were policemen outside the stadium who set up barricades to do checkpoints, and we saw that the policemen were all loaded with guns and serious faces, and they were so scared that they didn't even have the heart to play the game. When we entered the stadium, we heard people outside very noisy and excited, but Mr. Mustafa calmly said to us: "Kids, let's play football!" So he personally led us to the game, and it wasn't long before we had a big lead, but he was very devoted and shouted to us: "xxx, how can you not pass and cooperate!" "xxx, concentrate on the game, don't lose your mind." In the end we won the game, and a girl actually came up to me and took out a pen and paper and said, "Can you sign a name for me?" I was overwhelmed, but Mr. Mustafa put his arm around my shoulder and said, "Sign it!" It will definitely be worth a lot later." So I picked up a pen and signed my big name—I signed Luis, not Nani. (Speaking of which, Nani laughed)
To be continued.
Next Preview: Portugal's Post-85 Golden Wing Nani Interview II: The Growth Path of a Talented Winger
Compilation: Angelo