#denilson

#denilson

"Playing at Sao Paulo made me value my achievements even more, but the values I learned at home stayed with me everywhere," he tells FourFourTwo. "I was lucky that God gave me that gift and that the right people believed in me at the right time. One of those was the first-team boss, Tele Santana. He first watched me filling in during a reserve-team training session and liked what he had seen.

Then one day, Sao Paulo's president summoned me and my former agent. That alone was terrifying for a kid, since contact with the president was rare. He told me the club had received a $12 million bid from Barcelona and intended to accept it. I had no clue what $12m even worked out as in reais. At that point, whatever they said, I would have agreed to it.