London: 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, north-west 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.
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 10km 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 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."
Chasing his dream
Of the 80 poor kids in Santa Filomena, Mendes remembers that Nani was the "only one who didn't stop chasing his dream". "He would choose the weaker players for his side in order to always have the ball."
"Nani's was a small house, but the family were close and there was a great relationship between the cousins. His older brother was very important for Nani. He used to work in construction and sometimes Nani would go with him to help at work. He developed this strong feeling of family even though they were poor. It was a home."
In spite of the hardship, Nani has happy memories of his upbringing. His other favourite pastime with the association was capoeira, a combination of Brazilian martial art and music. The trademark somersaults that follow each of his goals were a common sight on the streets of Santa Filomena.
"My friends said I was nuts but I wanted to keep something from capoeira and that's why I always celebrate with a flip-flop," said Nani in a television interview in Portugal last week.
"People would always talk about that kid Nani [his sister gave him the name], the one with the curly hair. Life was tough but joyful. The only problem was hunger. We had not very good conditions at home, not much food. And it was my brother Paolo who'd sometimes bring food home, like cookies. We would steal fruit and other stuff to eat. I went to some bad paths, but I would always return to the right one.
"I'm not ashamed of the place I was born or the hard times I went through. If I reached where I wanted it was my effort and will, and it was worth it."
Nani denies that his dad walked out on the family, insisting that red tape prevented him from returning to Portugal. The two men met up again in 2006 and Nani recalls: "He tried to explain to me that he never abandoned me, but I just stopped the conversation and told him ‘You don't need to. I'm cool. I'm happy, I know what happened, so you don't owe me any explanations'.
"I didn't miss him so much because my brothers filled his role. They would give me all the support and love. I was the little boy, the protected, and nobody could touch me."
Nani hasn't forgotten the times when he relied on Real Massama for food and his friends for clothes.
"I couldn't afford expensive clothes so my colleagues would give me the trainers they weren't using any more or their clothes. Sometimes they invited me to spend a week at their houses."
Nani's mentor at the second division club, Luis Dias, admits that he could have joined Benfica instead of following his destiny to Sporting Lisbon and Old Trafford.
Dias, now a youth coach at Sporting, was Nani's under-11 coach when Massama were invited to play at Benfica's Stadium of Light by then-manager Graeme Souness. Although it was decided to keep Nani at Massama because of his domestic situation, he trained regularly with Sporting before joining them at 16. Nani earned €900 (Dh4,557) a month as an academy player, but that rose to €10,000 when he signed as a professional.
The money helped to move his aunt Antonia out of Santa Filomena and he continues to support his family financially now that he earns considerably more at United.
First session
Pereira will never forget the first session at Sporting with coach Osvaldo Silva.
"Nani walked in with a boot under each arm," he recalls. "After 10 minutes he flicked the ball over the defender's head with a back-heel. Oswald stopped the training, pointed at him and said ‘What's your name?'."
Earlier this month Nani scored Portugal's first two goals in a 5-3 win over Iceland, upstaging his teammate Ronaldo.
"I know how hard it was for me to get here," he says. "I will keep fighting to go as high as I can. I will give my best to show that there is someone who fights in the name of the family."
The boy from Santa Filomena has come a long way.
FACTBOX
— Daily Mail
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