The Ups And Downs Of Joao Cancelo (Part 1)

January 5, 2013

Jose, an earning man from a middle-class family in Portugal, will leave for Switzerland in the early hours of the morning. His wife helps him. Working in 3 places everyday. The goal is the same, a better future for their two sons and a better life.

Jose was accompanied on this journey by his wife Filomena and two sons. In due course of time, everyone arrived at the Lisbon airport, and Jose said goodbye to his family and boarded a flight to Switzerland.

Now it's time to return.

The driver was Filomena, with the two sons. The two boys were getting sleepy because they woke up very early in the morning. So, Filomena put her two sons in the back seat of the car and fastened their seatbelts. Filomena is driving, she has to get home soon. There is an urge to go to work after finishing housework. But unfortunately, Filomena did not return. A few miles south of Lisbon, she was killed in a fatal road accident near the Benfica Training Center. With the exception of minor injuries due to seatbelts, the boys survived with fairly less harm. Yes, one of the two sons who survived that tragic accident that day was Man City and one of the top performers in Portugal today, currently one of the best fullbacks in the world, Joao Cancelo.

May 26, 1994

The eldest son, Cancelo, was born in the town of Barreiro, south of Lisbon, to light the house of Jose and Filomena. Like ten other ordinary children in Portugal, Cancelo played football on the streets as a child. Cancelo then tasted the first competitive football for the local club "Barreirense". Being able to play both legs equally, he regularly plays in both right back and left back positions. The talented Cancelo soon caught the eye of the Benfica Youth Scout team and joined the Benfica Football Academy in 2006. Cancelo's progress was slow at the very beginning of his career, although he was able to play both legs equally, with great speed and skill in dribbling. That is why, despite being a regular member of the Benfica "B" team since 2006, Cancelo made his debut for Benfica's main team on July 26, 2012, in a friendly match against Gil Vicente. When things were going very smoothly, he was just waiting for the time to be a regular in the Benfica main team, just then the horrific tragic road accident befell on the Cancelo family. 18 year old Cancelo is paralyzed by the loss of his mother Filomena. In the midst of her busy schedule, Cancelo used to be brought to Benfica's training field by his mother every day. He even took the decision not to return to football. But a month later, a conversation with his father Jose changed Cancelo's outlook on life.

In Cancelo's words, the pain of his mother's demise, the tears in his father's eyes, and the tensions of the world, all these adversities have helped him to recover from the devastation. Cancelo rejoined Benfica Academy, transforming the grief of loss into energy. But this is like a changed cancelo.

Cancello, who used to play football with joy, laugh and joke with everyone, is lost. Instead, Benfica Academy saw a tough, resilient Cancelo, determined to lead himself to the top of success. Just four months after returning to the academy, Benfica won the National Championship for the Under-19s with Cancelo scoring two goals (2-1) in the title decider match against Rio Ave. Following in the footsteps of such a brilliant performance, in the last match of Benfica's 13/14 season, Cancelo played against Porto in the main team. But Cancello couldn't erase the memories of the tragic accident at the Benfica training ground, the tragic accident that happened right next to the ground, his mother waiting at the gate of Benfica Academy. During her lifetime, when father Jose was not a big believer in his son Cancelo's footballing talents, his mother Filomena, always inspired him from beginning to end.

So Cancello, determined to make his mother's wishes come true, decided to leave Benfica for his own good....