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The Sun
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Sir Alex Ferguson arrives at Champions League final with Gary Neville as £2m-a-year Man Utd role comes to an end
SIR ALEX FERGUSON is preparing for a new chapter - by watching Paris Saint-Germain attempt to write their greatest one ever. The legendary ex-Manchester United boss arrived at Bayern Munich's famous venue with Gary Neville as PSG bid to finally win the Champions league. 1 The French giants are taking on Inter Milan, just as 83-year-old Fergie bows out of his special role as United's global ambassador. It's not quite been the final flourish the Red Devils' most famous ever manager might have liked. He was in Bilbao to see United's 1-0 loss to Tottenham in the Europa league showpiece on May 21. And that's after he lost his £2million-a-year position at Old Trafford - as part of major cost-cutting from United's minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. It certainly wasn't personal as Ratcliffe and his company unveiled nearly 500 redundancies. And there's also planned investment for the future - most notably for a new £2billion 100,000-seat stadium. Ferguson's glittering 26 years in charge contrasts with everything that has followed since his managerial retirement in 2013. Fergie guided United to 13 Premier League titles and two Champions league crowns. Undoubtedly the peak was the Treble in 1998-99 - three years before fellow club icon Neville arrived. Now the ex-England defender, 50, is a TV pundit - while it's unclear if Fergie will have another direct job in football.
Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Paul Ince interview: Manchester United players are mentally weak
Manchester United have fallen from being the standard-bearers of English football to its laughing stock after their worst season in more than 50 years. A 15th-place finish in the Premier League, defeat by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final and, just this week, further humiliation in a post-season tour of Asia have left United fans yearning for the dominance of the Sir Alex Ferguson era. Paul Ince is no different. When United won their first league title in 26 years in 1993, Ferguson did so with a team famed as much for their character as ability. Hardened warriors such as Steve Bruce, Bryan Robson, Mark Hughes and Ince, an uncompromising, abrasive driving force in midfield, were at the heart of it all. The contrast to today could not be greater. 'It really saddens me to see where Manchester United are now,' the former England captain tells Telegraph Sport. 'In the teams I played in, we not only had so many top players, but tough competitors and great characters, too. 'You hear Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane talk about there being no characters in the game because players haven't got that mental toughness nowadays. 'When I was at United, as players we used to analyse potential signings and say, 'Is he good enough to play for Man United?' 'It wasn't just about being a top player, but how you conducted yourself and dealt with the pressure and expectation of playing for United. 'The fans demand that you produce week in and week out, but some of the current players can't cope with that mentally. They haven't got the character to do it.' Ruben Amorim, the manager, and indeed the United hierarchy, have come under mounting scrutiny amid a wave of brutal cutbacks and redundancies at Old Trafford. While Ince says stability is needed, he queries some of the Portuguese coach's tactics, such as rigidly sticking to a formation that simply has not worked. The 57-year-old also questioned Amorim's decision to play Luke Shaw and Mason Mount in the Europa League final while Alejandro Garnacho started on the bench. 'We had the best manager in the world in Sir Alex Ferguson, who laid the foundation for the club to be as great as it was,' Ince says. 'Since he left, United have had numerous different managers, which has shown that they can't get it quite right. Amorim's had these players since he came in and there has been no improvement whatsoever. 'We're not talking about bad players here – we're talking about players who can't play in a system that Amorim wants to play. He's said he's not going to change his system of three at the back and that he believes in it, but the balance doesn't look right. 'As a manager, you play with the players you've got and in a system that suits them. Garnacho had played all season in the Europa League, but was on the bench for the final and for some reason Amorim started two players [Shaw and Mount] who have barely played for God knows how long. They spent over £40 million on Manuel Ugarte and he couldn't even get on the pitch in Bilbao! 'People say, 'I feel sorry for Amorim', but I don't feel sorry for anybody – he's manager of Manchester United and it's the greatest job in the world. The fans are patient with him, as are the board, because they can't be in a position where they're chopping and changing managers because that won't get them anywhere. 'But this summer is going to be vital because United are currently miles away from the top five in the Premier League.' Recruitment will be key after last summer's splurge under Erik ten Hag failed to pay off. 'United have spent a lot of money, so there's absolutely no excuse for where they finished in the league,' Ince says. 'We finished 13th in my first season at United in 1989-90 but won the FA Cup that year and we kept progressing. I'm hoping it's going to be a similar scenario under Amorim, but it's going to be a very long road. 'These next two to three months are a very important period for Amorim and the board at United.' Matheus Cunha is expected to complete a £62.5 million move from Wolves, but Ince warns United need more firepower and described their recent recruitment as substandard. Aston Villa and England striker Ollie Watkins is a player he feels United need to try to bring to Old Trafford. 'If you picked your best 11 players from the Premier League, you wouldn't have one United player in there. And you probably could have said that in the last six or seven years. How can Liverpool go and sign the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, and Arsenal get Declan Rice? 'Why haven't United been in the market for them? Are they looking in the right places? I don't think they are right now, so it's a big summer for everyone involved at the club, that's for sure. 'They badly need more firepower and I'm looking at someone like Ollie Watkins – a striker who can actually score goals – as a player United need to be going for.' Ince arrived at Old Trafford from West Ham United in 1989 and won two Premier League titles, two FA Cups, a League Cup, the European Cup Winners' Cup and European Super Cup. He left to join Inter Milan in 1995 and became a pantomime villain among United fans after being branded a 'big-time Charlie' by Ferguson before returning to the Premier League to join arch rivals Liverpool in 1997. Ince, who won 53 international caps and was the first black player to captain England, believes Inter can defeat Paris St-Germain in Saturday's Champions League final. 'A lot of people are getting caught up in this PSG side because the likes of [Lionel] Messi, Neymar and [Kylian] Mbappé have been there. But all their stars have gone now and they're more of a team,' Ince says. 'Yes, PSG have had some games leading into this final where they have been very good. But they've also been very vulnerable at times, especially against Aston Villa, so defensively you can get at them. I believe that, with their experience of the past two to three years, this Inter Milan side can go on and lift the trophy.' Ince has been out of management since being sacked by Reading in April 2023, but he is open to the prospect of finding a route back in. 'I did a fantastic job at Reading and getting sacked set me back a bit,' he admits. 'But I've proved myself as a manager, having managed in every league in English football. 'I've always been firefighting, so I'm quite proud of my managerial career and if I get another opportunity then I'd love to manage again.'
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Manchester United's other post-season tours – ‘Tottman', parachutist, and an armed robber
Manchester United are on a post-season tour for the first time since 1986 when the team also ended up in Hong Kong and played in front of a mere 4,575. Sir Alex Ferguson became manager six months later and put a stop to them — though he always accepted the commercial need for United tours. Before that, post-season tours were semi-regular from the end of the Second World War and United visited places unimaginable today, away for weeks and in conditions that would do more than raise eyebrows. As the current team continue a tour that began with defeat, boos and an open-top bus, Andy Mitten looks back at United's previous post-season tours, including an armed robber, an offer to move to Colombia, and the time they joined up with Spurs as 'Tottman'. Following victory in the 1948 FA Cup final, Sir Matt Busby took his team on a mini-tour where they played a Bohemians XI (which included six Blackpool players who had taken on and lost to United in the cup final) at Dublin's Dalymount Park in front of 37,500, with my great-uncle, winger Charlie Mitten, scoring the only goal in a 2-1 defeat. Advertisement United stayed in Dublin to play a Shelbourne XI, which included several guesting English Football League footballers, four days later, winning 4-3 in front of 25,000. United played Linfield at Belfast's Windsor Park on the same tour, a 4-3 win. My grandfather gave me a copy of the match programme, which is worth hundreds. United went back to Ireland after the following season. The club have always been popular in Ireland and have played several post-season games there over the years. United have toured the U.S. multiple times, playing to huge crowds. The training facilities, security, opposition, match fees and organisation appeal and the team will return in July, but it's a far cry from United's first visit in 1950. The players sailed to New York on the Queen Mary for a mammoth post-season tour, travelling tourist class and causing excitement among admiring passengers. However, the glamour faded soon after the team docked in Manhattan. Results were poor and the travelling, mostly by train, wore the team out. Expenses of $5 a day had to be spent on meals, denying the players the opportunity to spend their hard-earned money in this consumer paradise. United played in Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, St. Louis, Massachusetts, Randall's Island in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles. There were highlights, notably meeting actor Clark Gable in Hollywood's MGM studios. The night before the team were due to sail back to Southampton, Great-Uncle Charlie received a call from Neil Franklin, England's centre-half who had just left Stoke City for Colombia along with George Mountford — two stars of English football causing a huge stir by moving to cash-rich Colombia. Franklin was with Luis Robledo, the main man at Sante Fe who offered to fly Mitten to Bogota to see if he wanted to make a similar move. Advertisement Mitten was on £10 per week at United and the offer from Colombia was a £5,000 signing-on fee and £5,000 per year, plus bonuses. Mitten told Robledo he had like to visit Colombia, then went to speak to manager Matt Busby. 'He was angry and upset,' recalled my great-uncle, who died in 2002, in a 1995 interview. His contract was due to expire, but Busby said United were going to re-sign him. 'There was an assumption we would sign as usual,' said Mitten. 'They took us for granted. I said to Matt: 'Listen, I'm 29 and it's about time we started getting something out of life now'. Matt quietened down. When I told him the salary, he said: 'Do they want a manager?'. We had a good chat. I was always one of his favourites. I went back to what I'd told him before the (1948) FA Cup final, that if we were to finish right now, we'd have nothing, you couldn't even buy a house.' My great-uncle opted to go to Colombia and eventually spent a year playing there before returning to England, but he never played for United again. On the day he left Manchester for South America by ship, there was only one person to see him and his family off from the old Manchester London Road (now Piccadilly) train station: Billy Meredith, a past United and City legend and stalwart of players' rights. He told Charlie that if he'd had a chance to go to Bogota on that money, he would've walked. 'We viewed those huge post-season tours like an end-of-season holiday and we visited amazing places,' midfielder Paddy Crerand recalled to me in his 2007 autobiography Never Turn the Other Cheek. 'We played a series of exhibition games and United were billed as 'the champions of England'. It was our job to advertise the English game and all its virtues to the world. Over 250,000 paid to see us play over the dozen matches.' Advertisement United visited New Zealand and Australia on the same tour. While on tour in Sydney, Crerand recalls an incredible situation in the Coogee Bay Hotel overlooking the Pacific. Having spoken to his wife back in the UK on the phone, Crerand decided to head to the other players' room one night for a drink. 'When I got there, the door was half open. I thought, 'That's funny'. I crept in on tiptoe. Then a man leapt out from behind the door. It gave me the fright of my life, he brushed past me and rushed down the corridor. 'Thief!', I shouted, waking everyone up. 'He's a f****** robber'.' Crerand chased after the man and caught up with him. ''Come here, you bastard!', I shouted. 'And I'll f****** kill you!'. He suddenly stopped and turned. He looked at me. Rather than jump on him, I stopped too, because he was holding a revolver and pointing it at me. ''If you come any closer, I'm going to kill you', he said. I didn't back off, but turned and sprinted. I ran straight back to the lads' room. John Fitzpatrick had been robbed of a few dollars, but nothing else was missing.' Unthinkable now, but in 1975 United travelled to pre-revolution Iran to commence a global summer tour. Unlike some, defender Arthur Albiston remembered it fondly, as quoted in my book We're the Famous Man United. 'We were away for 38 days, although a lot of the older players didn't like it one bit. They were away from their families for 38 days and played 10 matches.' There were 14 flights and 32,000 miles to fly for United as the team went to Iran, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bangkok, and Australia. Tommy Docherty, the manager, had to come on as a sub in one of the games — and he got sent off. Jim Holton and Alex Forsyth, two of the players, missed the births of their kids. 'It would never happen now. But for the younger lads who were shielded from the arguments, it was a great adventure and we loved the trip. I saw the world at 17,' said Albiston. United drew 1-1 against Persepolis in front of 40,000 and Tony Veys, one of a handful of travelling fans, tells me: 'Tehran was a sprawling, dusty, hot city. The Iranian people were very hospitable. Few others travelled, although four lads from Swindon got a train. It took them eight days.' Veys, who still sells merchandise near Old Trafford, drove from Manchester to Iran. From Iran, United went on to Bangkok (where Docherty was sent off), Hong Kong, Jakarta, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Los Angeles. Their reward, a week after their return, was to begin pre-season training. United's players had barely finished celebrating the 1983 FA Cup win before they flew to Swaziland for a post-season tour. The tiny landlocked country in southern Africa — now called Eswatini — was used because political sanctions prevented United from playing in neighbouring South Africa. Ticket prices were more expensive than the FA Cup final. Advertisement 'The stadium was full of wealthy South Africans,' Andy Markely, one of the few travelling fans, tells me. He reached his destination via Madrid, Nairobi and Johannesburg. United played Tottenham Hotspur twice in the Lobamba National Stadium, winning one and losing one. The crowds were 6,000 and 8,000. In between those games, United and Spurs combined to form a single team: 'Tottman'. This bizarre entity beat a Swaziland XI 6-1. 'After the tour, (manager) Ron Atkinson went to Mauritius,' former defender Albiston recalled to me. 'And we were unable to get back to Johannesburg for flights home because fans had booked them up. The Tottenham lads had flights, so Glenn Hoddle rented us his hire car — after some hard bargaining. I drove Gordon McQueen, John Gidman and Kevin Moran 400 miles to Johannesburg, where we had a few days enjoying ourselves.' United played post-season in Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne in May 1984 and a year later, the day after parading the FA Cup in Manchester's Albert Square, the victorious United team left for Montego Bay in Jamaica as a treat from the United chairman Martin Edwards. 'Everyone was happy, not just because we had won the cup but because we were loaded with bonus money, and money from selling tickets too,' recalled full-back John Gidman in We're the Famous Man United. The games would be against Southampton in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where United lost 1-0 in front of 19,000 fans, and against a Jamaica XI, who United beat 3-1 in Kingston, watched by 15,000. 'Me and Arthur Albiston were injured, so we got a few beers and sat on the bench,' said Gidman. 'The Jamaican Air Force were putting a show on and one of their top men stood in the centre of the pitch by a giant cross that had been marked out. 'He proudly told the crowd the match ball was going to be delivered to the centre circle by a parachutist, who would land on the cross. I bet Arthur £100 that he couldn't land in the centre circle. This bloke seemed like he was going to make the stadium until a gust of wind blew him off course. We could already see a second parachutist above him. Arthur said, 'Double or quits', but he landed far away. A third and final parachutist was coming in and we went double or quits again, agreeing that all he had to do was land inside the stadium. Advertisement 'The bloke came closest, but became tangled in the roof. He was injured, yet all we could do was argue about the technicality of whether he'd landed inside the stadium or not. The game started, only to be stopped 10 minutes in when the fire brigade turned to cut the bloke free. I won the £400.'
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Matheus Cunha by those who knew him growing up: ‘He turned from water into wine'
Perhaps Matheus Cunha and Manchester United were always meant to be. The Brazilian forward, who has been given permission to undergo a medical at Old Trafford before a proposed £62.5million ($83.7m) summer transfer from Wolverhampton Wanderers, was born just hours after one of United's most famous nights and 18 years later cemented his reputation as a prodigious talent by starring against them. Advertisement While Sir Alex Ferguson and his players were still nursing hangovers from their epic Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich in May 1999, Cunha came into the world in the Brazilian state of Paraiba. By the time he starred for Coritiba against United in the under-19s Dallas Cup in April 2017, football had already taken him thousands of miles from home, and his journey was just beginning. By the age of 14, Cunha had moved almost 2,000 miles to sign for Coritiba. By 18, he had swapped South America for Europe to join Swiss club Sion. His life in football has rarely stood still, from the Torre neighbourhood of Joao Pessoa, a medium-sized city in the Brazilian state of Paraiba, to the relative glamour of European football. 'He was a very talented kid,' Barao Xavier, futsal coach at CT Barao in Recife, told The Athletic. 'Cognitively, he was so far ahead of the others. He was the guy who moved the team from defence to attack. 'He scored goals. He was two-footed. He was the leader. When we played against his Cabo Branco team, I had to come up with a strategy to stop him. We'd leave another player free so we could double up on him.' By the time Xavier first saw Cunha, he had already begun to make a name for himself locally, playing football with his father Carmelo in Praca Sao Goncalo as well as futsal with Cabo Branco. Xavier's next plan to neutralise Cunha's threat was more ambitious — he decided to sign him. 'I spoke to his dad first,' Xavier said. 'I told him I saw a lot of quality in Matheus and asked whether he would be interested in coming to work with me. His dad agreed but I had to run it past his mum, too. 'I told them both that he would start off playing futsal but that I would oversee his transition to 11-a-side football later on. There wasn't an 11-a-side league in the town where he lived. Advertisement 'I was at Santa Cruz at the time, but I left not long after that and ended up bringing him to my project. 'He arrived in January, aged nine. A month later, he came with us to a tournament in Switzerland. 'It was a coincidence that he later moved to a Swiss club. We won the tournament and then went back the next year, coming second. In the second year, he was voted best player in the competition. 'This was a tournament with Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Bordeaux and other European sides. It was an under-11 competition. He was 10.' According to an interview during his futsal days, the young Cunha went by the nickname 'Neymar' because 'My game is similar to his. I like to dribble, I can shoot with both feet. I play in attack.' It was becoming increasingly clear Cunha had a chance of making football his life, but his father, a teacher of maths and science, and his mother, who worked in a local hotel, refused to let the game interfere with his school work. 'I remember once we had an important game against Sport in Recife,' Xavier recalls. 'It was an evening kick-off and Matheus had a maths exam the following morning. His dad brought him from Joao Pessoa but couldn't hang around. 'He told me that Matheus could only play if I promised to take him home after the game. It was a 120km trip! We played the game, won, and I drove Matheus home. We got there at 2am and he was up at 7am for his exam. He was a model student.' By the age of 11, Cunha was attracting the attention of Brazil's biggest clubs, but a two-week trial at Santos — the club where the legendary Pele and later Neymar started their careers — did not prove successful. It was three years later when the same agent who had arranged that trial asked Xavier for his best players to try out at Coritiba. This time, he did enough to earn a place at the club. Advertisement 'This guy came from another state to watch first-team games at Nautico and Santa Cruz,' Cunha told GloboEsporte in 2017. 'But he ended up being invited by one of my team-mates' parents to watch a CT Barao game, too. He really liked me. He told me right then that he wanted to take me to Coritiba. I was a kid and I didn't really believe it. Nearly a year later, he did take me and that's where my career began.' The move was a big one for a 14-year-old, taking him almost 2,000 miles from his family for a life that revolved around his new club. He moved into accommodation within the Coritiba training complex and was forced to become independent. 'These things happen with a lot of younger players in Brazil,' Sando Forner, who coached a young Cunha at Coritiba, told The Athletic earlier this year. 'I think it makes people stronger because it's not easy to live alone at that age, to solve a lot of problems and deal with difficult situations.' As a player, Cunha's talent was never in doubt, and his personality made an impression at Coritiba, too. 'He was always one of the best players in our age group,' said Pablo Thomaz, Cunha's strike partner in Coritiba's youth teams. 'He was the No 10 and I was the No 9. I was the top scorer every year and Matheus was the guy setting up most of my goals. We had a really great partnership. He was so easy to play with. I never had to tell him where to play the pass; he would just read my run and put me through on goal. 'We were great friends off the pitch and we still speak today. He was a big joker. We were room-mates in the club accommodation. 'Even as kids, we both had strong personalities. We used to argue a lot. Sometimes we'd fall out in training the day before a match and not speak to each other until kick-off. 'But he'd see one of my runs and set me up for a goal, and we'd hug and make up. He'd say, 'You're a pain, but I love you.'' Advertisement 'He arrived to play for the under-15 side,' said Thalisson, another team-mate in the youth team. 'He was the standout player in his age group. He was more of a midfielder back then. When I saw him later, playing in Switzerland and Germany, or for Atletico Madrid or Brazil, he played as a striker. But at Coritiba, he was a No 10. Everyone could see the technical quality he had, but he wasn't as physically impressive as he is today. He was a really, really skinny kid. It was his technique that made him stand out. 'He had a very strong personality and was extremely competitive. Even away from football, playing any kind of game, he always wanted to win and would get into arguments. 'He was the joker of the group, the guy making everyone laugh. He made fun of everyone and he could take it when we made fun of him in return. He was great fun to be around.' Luiz Henrique, another Coritiba team-mate, recalled how Cunha was 'a leader, someone who always demanded the best — from himself and from the team. 'Off the pitch, he was a joker. Sometimes it was a bit much and we would have to tell him to knock it off. 'He always liked to get advice from those with more experience. In terms of intelligence, he was very advanced for his age.' Another colleague from those days, Diego Monteiro, agreed: 'He was strong and quick, but it was his intelligence that stood out,' Monteiro said. 'I always thought he was a really promising player. 'I spent a lot of time with him off the pitch because we used to study together. He was a chatty kid, always laughing, always playing tricks. But on the pitch, he was serious and courageous. He wanted responsibility.' The experience was not plain sailing, however. There was a moment when Cunha's success might have been halted in its tracks, but instead was propelled to a different level. Advertisement 'At one point, he was supposed to go to a tournament in Italy with Coritiba,' Xavier recalled. 'The day before the trip, he was told he didn't make the squad. His dad called me. He wanted to bring him home, back to Joao Pessoa. 'I told him that Matheus should stay put — that he should hang around the training ground, get to know the chef, the kit man, the guy who cuts the grass. Matheus was 16 at the time. 'He stayed and ended up being asked to train with the older boys — under-19s, I think — while his age group was away. There was a shooting session and he did well; he ended up changing position, becoming a striker, and moving up an age category.' If Cunha's ability was always clear, it was in those older age groups at Coritiba, based in the city of Curitiba in the southern state of Parana, that he really flourished. Henrique Vermudt, another Coritiba team-mate, said: 'When he arrived — in the under-15s, I think — we could all see he was talented, but nothing out of this world. He was just a good, solid player. 'But when he started playing for the under-20s, he changed. He turned from water into wine. He came back from his holidays in Paraiba and he was just… different. We all joked with him, 'Man, what did you do to get so good all of a sudden?' 'He had a great personality. We'd arrive for training at 7.30am, everyone shivering in the cold, and he'd be this ball of energy, doing pranks, winding people up. It could actually be a bit annoying sometimes, but he was just so full of life, so happy.' And then came Dallas, and that first meeting with Manchester United. Cunha and co travelled to Texas for a tournament that featured clubs from around the world, with Everton joining United in representing the Premier League. Coritiba reached the semi-finals before losing 2-1 to the hosts, FC Dallas. Cunha was suspended, having collected two yellow cards in previous games, but had already done enough to take the tournament by storm, including in a 1-1 draw against United. Advertisement 'I was captain of that age group,' said Thalisson. 'Matheus was a year younger but he caught everyone's attention. He did some absurd things with the ball. He was spectacular, our best player. 'We had a great run to the semi-finals and he played well in every match. Playing against a team like that (United) was unforgettable. It was a really even match, too. Matheus took responsibility, like he always did. He wanted the ball all the time, wanted to be at the centre of everything. Some young players might feel nervous playing against a big-name team, but he wasn't scared. He really stood out in that match.' 'We would wind him up, telling him he was the best player in the world born in 1999,' added Vermudt. 'He didn't like the joke, but he absolutely destroyed that tournament. 'Against Chivas — we won 4-3 — he set up three goals and then scored an amazing solo goal. He did everything himself, dribbling from halfway and going past most of their team before scoring. 'He was brilliant against Manchester. It was a close game and there was even a bit of a scuffle between the sides. We had a very defensive setup; he had to do pretty much everything on his own in the final third. 'He had a great tournament. We joked with him that it was like he had edited his game down to a highlights reel.' Yet when Cunha made his surprise move to Switzerland shortly after his return from the United States, it was his personality and not his performance that sealed the deal, according to one of the men closely involved. 'When I was in Curitiba and he was 17, I went to watch a game, said the former agent Eric Lovey, speaking to The Athletic earlier this season. 'An agent had said, 'Come and see my players'. I had been shopping and had been to see my friends and I had nothing to do, so I decided to go and watch the game. Matheus didn't play a very good game, but afterwards I went for a coffee with him. After 15 minutes, I saw such maturity in him that he could be a big player. Advertisement 'I said to my friend, the president of Sion, 'I don't have a video or a DVD, he's not on Transfermarkt, he is nothing'. 'I told him he had the possibility to believe in me, and he paid $200,000 (£150,000) to sign him, but when he signed him, he didn't know anything about him. 'He had never played as a professional, but after the coffee with him, I was so impressed with his personality. I spoke with a man. He was not like an under-18. He was focused. His home is a three-hour flight from Coritiba, so he went home one time every year. 'When he was at Coritiba, he earned $200 per week, so he did not have the money for flights to see his family. Coritiba is one of the coldest cities in Brazil, and when someone says to you at 13 that you have to go over 2,000km from your house, it takes character.' Lovey, the former agent of Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho, set the wheels in motion for the move, but Cunha still had to decide whether to travel even further from his family, to a different continent, while still in his teens. Thalisson said: 'I remember sitting in the stands at the Couto Pereira (Coritiba's stadium) having a chat. He asked me whether I thought he should go. 'He was a bit scared. He wanted to turn professional at Coritiba, but he saw Sion as a huge opportunity. 'We talked about it a lot. It was a decision that could change his life completely, but he also had reservations. We all supported him. Thankfully, everything worked out well.' Thomaz added: 'I remember we were both called into a meeting to renew our contracts and talk about moving up to the senior side. But he didn't sign. It took me by surprise. When I moved up to the first team at Coritiba, I found out he was moving to Switzerland. I think he understood that it was the best option for him and his family.' Advertisement Cunha's impact at Sion was not instant. But it did not take long. The club flew his mother from Brazil for two months to help him settle, taught him French — the local language — and focused intensively on his fitness and defensive understanding. 'Players like Matheus need time to adapt when they arrive in Europe,' said Christian Zermatten, a Sion coach, speaking to Nouvelliste, in 2018. 'He made the effort to learn French quickly. Everything became easier when we were able to speak to him directly.' Typically, Cunha did not stand still. Within a year, he moved on to RB Leipzig, two years later to Hertha Berlin and, after a year in Germany, he was off to Atletico Madrid. Wolves came calling two-and-a-half years ago, and now the biggest challenge of Cunha's career awaits. He can count on support from those who were there at the start. 'Now when I see him play, he maintains some of the characteristics he had here,' said Forner, who was on the Coritiba bench for that Dallas Cup game against United. 'There are things he hasn't lost: he still finishes very well, he still has very good skills in one against ones. But now he understands the game and his positioning is very good.' 'I was at his wedding last year, in Natal,' said Xavier. 'There is a photo of him sitting on my lap. I'm not one of those people who are always pestering; I like to leave him be, because he has a busy life. But we still talk sometimes and I wish him luck before games. 'Last summer, he came back to visit the project. He saw the pitch he used to train on. 'I remember speaking to his mum during a game against Santa Cruz. He must have been 13. I said, 'Lu,' — her name is Luziana — 'Matheus plays like they do in Europe.' She told me she hoped that was a sign. 'When I see him play today, I feel like my work paid off, that it was worth it. I travelled 120km just to watch him play, then had the pleasure of working with him. He makes me so proud. 'He's an example to all of the other kids here — an example of grit, determination and the value of hanging in there. I'm so happy for him.' (Top photos: Barao Xavier and Getty Images)
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Amorim navigates tricky Malaysia poser with ease
It used to be a feature of Manchester United trips to Asia that Sir Alex Ferguson would get asked in media conferences what he thought of the standard of football in that particular country and whether there were any players he was keeping an eye generally fell back on the catch-all answer that football was growing 'in this part of the world' and the standard is getting better. In somewhere like Japan, he might mention a well-known player; in other countries he would just say there were 'a few' that he liked and left it at in Kuala Lumpur for the first time since 2009, yesterday, it was Ruben Amorim who had to field the same questions. He dealt with them pretty well."We want the best players in the world," he said. "If I see someone with real value and he performs he could be on our list."I don't have a lot of knowledge in this region. I know it is getting bigger. I know in Malaysia, you have football and badminton."But it (football) is a global sport and is improving in every region."
