To Anyone Who's Dreaming

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/jorginho-premier-league-chelsea-italy-soccer





It was like the army. Train twice a day, then study. Fifty players sleeping in bunk beds lined up next to each other. Before I arrived I had been at trials with three clubs in São Paulo, but they had all rejected me, so I went back to my hometown, Imbituba, where this Italian football agent invited me to this camp he was running. He said that the players who did well there had a small chance to go to Italy. What kid doesn’t want to go to Europe, right?

I had been at the camp for a while when the real problems began. One day the cleaning lady quit because she hadn’t been paid, so they split us into groups of five and gave each one a cleaning day. Cheap, sure. But one day a group didn’t bother to clean. So what happened the next day? The second group didn’t bother either. That kept happening for weeks — and the filth just accumulated. The toilets were the worst. You had to hold your breath.

Maybe this will surprise you, but living like that actually became normal to me. Seriously. I learned that humans can adapt to anything, no matter how bad. It’s insane what you can endure when you feel like you have no choice. When you want something so badly that quitting seems impossible.

You know, when I was five, my dad had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said, “A football player.” He said, “But being a football player is not just the stuff you see on TV. They will hurt you, they will steal from you, they will make you cry. You will want to go home. You will want to give up. Now, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

I said, “A footballer player.”................................

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