We caught up with our Brazilian left-back to talk about his journey from Brazil to London, via Italy, and the unique aspects of this club where he has found a tight-knit group of players and a fanbase like no other…
Interview: Dominic Bliss
Images: Stuart Tree
How has your first season with Corinthian-Casuals gone so far?
It has been a great experience for me because the Corinthians are a big team – I have played before at the same level, but there is a big difference because the supporters here give us an extra feeling. I know the history about the Corinthians in Brazil and here, so to be here now is perfect.
Did you say you’ve played at this level before?
Yeah, I played for St Panteleimon last year, but the team is no more for financial reasons – it costs a lot to run a team, it’s not easy to manage.
How did you and the other Brazilian players find out about Corinthian-Casuals?
Someone sent my video to Mu and he told me to come to training. I had come in last year, but the team was not doing good, so I didn’t go because I thought it wasn’t the time. Then, this summer, someone saw the Brazilian players and now we have a lot of Brazilians here because everyone knows someone else who can play… like I did with Marcos. I said, “Gaffer, I have a player here who I think you might be interested in.” He said, “Bring him to training.”
Tell us about your football background.
I started in Brazil, playing Under-15s for Paranaense in my region, Parana. Then I moved to São Paulo, to play for Rio Claro. It was good there because São Paulo is the place where most people see you play, so you get more visibility and you can get an agent, and things like this.
After this, I played in the Under-17s for a team called Paulista, and some agent saw me play there and said he liked my game. He told me he wanted to sign me and started to work with me. He brought me to Italy, but I didn’t have a good experience there because I didn’t have the documents I needed. I could only stay in this one place for three months and I lost time in this crazy situation. He told me one thing, but when I arrived there it was another.
But my family come from Italy, so I started to do the work to get the documents I needed, to do things right. It took about a year to do this, and I didn’t play for this year.
After I got the documents, I was able to play again, and I played for Akragas in Sicily, in a league called Eccellenza, which is like the National League here. They are quite a big club because they had played in Serie C in the years before, and had a big stadium with a lot of supporters. It was a great experience I had there. After that, I moved to another Italian team, Ellera, but that was when the pandemic happened, and after that I moved to England.
How come you came to England?
They stopped the championship and everything because of the pandemic and I told friends I wanted to come to England. I had this feeling to come here, and it was the right time to do it because I hadn’t been playing in Italy during the pandemic.
After I came here, I started to play again but it was at quite a low level, with a team called North West London, who have many, many Brazilians – Marcos [dos Santos] was playing there too. It’s quite funny because I brought him there too, the same as I did here – in Brazil we had the same agent, but we had never actually met. When he came to England, he sent me a message saying, “Bro, I came to England, do you know any teams here?” And, yeah, he’s a good player.
Who was the first of the Brazilians to arrive at Corinthian-Casuals?
I need to remember! I think it was the two keepers, Murillo and Welber, and then they started to bring other players.
What do you think this group of players can achieve?
This group is special. We are like family and everyone understands how big Corinthians is. We can’t stay in this division long, because when other teams come to play against us at our home, they give everything because they know how big the game is.
The group is good, and everyone respects us. Even though we don’t have very good English, they understand us and it’s nice because sometimes it’s hard to adapt, but not here.
And the fans…
For me, they are amazing, they are great people and I already know all the faces! They always support, if we win or if we lose, they sing and I love this. I will always try to give my best for them.
Interview: Dominic Bliss
Images: Stuart Tree
How has your first season with Corinthian-Casuals gone so far?
It has been a great experience for me because the Corinthians are a big team – I have played before at the same level, but there is a big difference because the supporters here give us an extra feeling. I know the history about the Corinthians in Brazil and here, so to be here now is perfect.
Did you say you’ve played at this level before?
Yeah, I played for St Panteleimon last year, but the team is no more for financial reasons – it costs a lot to run a team, it’s not easy to manage.
How did you and the other Brazilian players find out about Corinthian-Casuals?
Someone sent my video to Mu and he told me to come to training. I had come in last year, but the team was not doing good, so I didn’t go because I thought it wasn’t the time. Then, this summer, someone saw the Brazilian players and now we have a lot of Brazilians here because everyone knows someone else who can play… like I did with Marcos. I said, “Gaffer, I have a player here who I think you might be interested in.” He said, “Bring him to training.”
Tell us about your football background.
I started in Brazil, playing Under-15s for Paranaense in my region, Parana. Then I moved to São Paulo, to play for Rio Claro. It was good there because São Paulo is the place where most people see you play, so you get more visibility and you can get an agent, and things like this.
After this, I played in the Under-17s for a team called Paulista, and some agent saw me play there and said he liked my game. He told me he wanted to sign me and started to work with me. He brought me to Italy, but I didn’t have a good experience there because I didn’t have the documents I needed. I could only stay in this one place for three months and I lost time in this crazy situation. He told me one thing, but when I arrived there it was another.
But my family come from Italy, so I started to do the work to get the documents I needed, to do things right. It took about a year to do this, and I didn’t play for this year.
After I got the documents, I was able to play again, and I played for Akragas in Sicily, in a league called Eccellenza, which is like the National League here. They are quite a big club because they had played in Serie C in the years before, and had a big stadium with a lot of supporters. It was a great experience I had there. After that, I moved to another Italian team, Ellera, but that was when the pandemic happened, and after that I moved to England.
How come you came to England?
They stopped the championship and everything because of the pandemic and I told friends I wanted to come to England. I had this feeling to come here, and it was the right time to do it because I hadn’t been playing in Italy during the pandemic.
After I came here, I started to play again but it was at quite a low level, with a team called North West London, who have many, many Brazilians – Marcos [dos Santos] was playing there too. It’s quite funny because I brought him there too, the same as I did here – in Brazil we had the same agent, but we had never actually met. When he came to England, he sent me a message saying, “Bro, I came to England, do you know any teams here?” And, yeah, he’s a good player.
Who was the first of the Brazilians to arrive at Corinthian-Casuals?
I need to remember! I think it was the two keepers, Murillo and Welber, and then they started to bring other players.
What do you think this group of players can achieve?
This group is special. We are like family and everyone understands how big Corinthians is. We can’t stay in this division long, because when other teams come to play against us at our home, they give everything because they know how big the game is.
The group is good, and everyone respects us. Even though we don’t have very good English, they understand us and it’s nice because sometimes it’s hard to adapt, but not here.
And the fans…
For me, they are amazing, they are great people and I already know all the faces! They always support, if we win or if we lose, they sing and I love this. I will always try to give my best for them.
