When Romeu Romão was growing up in a favela in Brazil he had two toy options – a gun or a football. And after playing for multiple clubs and starting his own football school, he is thankful he chose the latter. The professional Brazilian footballer has been living in Malta since 2015 when he was signed to Valletta Football Club.
The year he was signed Valletta won their 23rd Premier League. But the then 25-year-old had one big problem. He couldn’t speak a word of English.
“I remember going to my first training and rubbing my tummy to signal to the trainers that I am hungry but they thought I meant that I love Maltese food (he laughed). I went to bed hungry that night because I couldn’t even ask for help.” He promised himself that day that he would learn English, having understood that if he really wanted to become a coach one day he needed to be a good communicator.
Romão’s love affair with the beautiful game began at five years old in Minas Gerais, Brazil. “My dad was my first coach. And I wanted to follow in his footsteps.
Not only be a good football coach but also show the kids how to believe in themselves,” said Romão. He said his father was a figure within their community who helped steer children away from the rampant drugs and violence around them by encouraging them to take up the sport. “It was a dangerous place to grow up.
As kids we would play football right next to people openly taking drugs,” he said. Thanks, he says, to his father’s p.
