Chronicles of Nani: From the crushing poverty of life as an outcast to United hero
By Chris Wheeler for the Daily Mail Updated: 23:19 BST, 14 October 2011






















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May 2007.

Aurelio Pereira receives a phone call from Carlos Queiroz, his old friend and Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant at Manchester United.
Something is troubling Queiroz.


He has arrived in Portugal with his chief executive David Gill to hold transfer talks over the latest winger to roll off Sporting Lisbon's production line and wants to be sure that United are making the right decision by paying £17million for Luis Carlos Almeida da Cunha, otherwise known as Nani.





'Carlos was in a hotel in Lisbon,' recalls Pereira, the 64-year-old head of Sporting's scouting network who is revered in Portugal for unearthing stars like Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Futre and Ricardo Quaresma but rarely speaks publicly about his proteges.




Heavens above: Nani has grown into one of Manchester United's stars


'He wanted to know about Nani's mentality and if he could handle the pressure of playing for United.




'He didn't want to know if he had good feet. He knew all about that. He wanted to know about his personality, how he could cope with a different country and a different team.


'It was a big responsibility for Carlos because it was a 25m euro deal and he wanted to be absolutely sure.
I calmed him and said that, yes, he was buying a complete player.'


Hours later United shake hands with Sporting on a deal to take the 20-year-old to Old Trafford, and the next chapter in Nani's remarkable life story begins.

 



 
The number 184 is daubed on the door in blue paint but the street, if you can call it that, has no name; just a dusty track that cuts through the long grass to the place where Nani was raised in Santa Filomena, a shanty town built on the hillside overlooking Amadora northwest of Lisbon.


Thirty per cent of people between the ages of 15 and 30 who live here have a criminal record.

It is unwise to pay a visit unless you are in the company of a local like Alcides Mendes, the founder and president of Espaco Jovem, the youth association that helped keep Nani away from crime after he was separated from his parents who had brought him from the African islands of Cape Verde at an early age.




His father Domingos returned there on holiday when Nani was seven and didn't come back. His mother Maria do Ceu left Portugal for Holland when he was 12, although by then the youngest of their 10 children had already chosen to live here in Santa Filomena with his aunt Antonia and her family, often sleeping six to a room with his brother and cousins.





Head over heels: Nani shows off his 'flip-flop' goal celebration





















Through the iron bars protecting the windows there is a clear view down to the railway tracks which Nani would follow on foot during the six-mile round trip to training with his first club Real Massama.

Sometimes, if he was late, he would jump on the train and dodge the ticket collector. On the other hand, it is only a short two-minute walk to the concrete five-a-side pitch in the middle of Santa Filomena where he mastered the art of street football.


'That's the big market for us,' says Pereira.
'The African kids from these quarters like Nani. Even now you can see how he mixes the high level of performance with the tricks of the street.'

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