Decided to pack his bags
Fire and ice: A Brazilian success in Sweden
With few opportunities at Atlético, Afonso decided to pack his bags and head off for his first European challenge in the icy northern climes of Sweden. It wasn’t a hard decision to make. Afonso wanted to play for Atlético Mineiro, but his chances were few and far between. His family gave their blessing to the move. But there were other reasons too.
“My girlfriend was pregnant (with Felipe, who is now 8 years old),” he explains. “That meant I had twice as many responsibilities and I had to make decisions. My family was very supportive, as was my agent, who has always been wonderful, almost like a father to me. The time had come for me to start demonstrating the talent that I hadn’t been able to show off at Galo [The Rooster - Atlético Mineiro’s nickname].”
His arrival in Sweden was complicated. Coping with the bitter cold was a struggle – sometimes he would play in temperatures as low as 13 degrees below zero – and he also began to feel homesick. His way of forgetting his troubles was to score goals.
“I went to Ögryte with [former Atlético teammate] Paulinho Guará in September 2001, at the start of winter. We couldn’t even speak properly, it was so cold. But thankfully the goals started to come. In one friendly Paulinho and I scored 10 goals between us,” he recalls.
However, the goals did not make the early problems disappear entirely. The cold, the language and the food were chronic issues for a player who craved the warmth of his Brazilian compatriots and his mother’s home cooking.
“The people in Sweden are very cool. You don’t speak to anyone, you don’t see your neighbours. The language is a mixture of German and English and is very hard. There’s no decent food. In Sweden they don’t have rice, beans or red meat. I had to get by on pasta. Almost every day I ate miojo [a Brazilian comfort food].”
But the goals and the backing of the fans, who soon started to idolise him, helped him forget his problems and eventually overcome his homesickness. But he admits that, before he left Brazil, he had feared the worst:
“When I was at Atlético, I thought about giving up altogether. I went three months without being paid, but my brother and my family kept on at me to keep trying. My brother joked with me and said that if I didn’t play any more then I’d have to get a job with him at the transportation company where he worked.”
As time went on, Afonso kept on scoring goals and started to catch the eye of the country’s bigger teams. Then, in 2004, he signed for Malmo, one of Sweden’s biggest clubs. It was another new challenge, and this time he was ready for it, and able to start realising some of his dreams.“The chance to sign for one of Sweden’s top clubs was great for me. It also enabled me to fulfill one of my mother’s and my family’s dreams. I bought a beautiful flat for her and one for my sister. And I even bought a lovely house for my son Felipe. We won the league in 2004 , I finished as the second top goalscorer, and won the ‘Golden Ball’ awarded to the player of the year.”
“My girlfriend was pregnant (with Felipe, who is now 8 years old),” he explains. “That meant I had twice as many responsibilities and I had to make decisions. My family was very supportive, as was my agent, who has always been wonderful, almost like a father to me. The time had come for me to start demonstrating the talent that I hadn’t been able to show off at Galo [The Rooster - Atlético Mineiro’s nickname].”
His arrival in Sweden was complicated. Coping with the bitter cold was a struggle – sometimes he would play in temperatures as low as 13 degrees below zero – and he also began to feel homesick. His way of forgetting his troubles was to score goals.
“I went to Ögryte with [former Atlético teammate] Paulinho Guará in September 2001, at the start of winter. We couldn’t even speak properly, it was so cold. But thankfully the goals started to come. In one friendly Paulinho and I scored 10 goals between us,” he recalls.
However, the goals did not make the early problems disappear entirely. The cold, the language and the food were chronic issues for a player who craved the warmth of his Brazilian compatriots and his mother’s home cooking.
“The people in Sweden are very cool. You don’t speak to anyone, you don’t see your neighbours. The language is a mixture of German and English and is very hard. There’s no decent food. In Sweden they don’t have rice, beans or red meat. I had to get by on pasta. Almost every day I ate miojo [a Brazilian comfort food].”
But the goals and the backing of the fans, who soon started to idolise him, helped him forget his problems and eventually overcome his homesickness. But he admits that, before he left Brazil, he had feared the worst:
“When I was at Atlético, I thought about giving up altogether. I went three months without being paid, but my brother and my family kept on at me to keep trying. My brother joked with me and said that if I didn’t play any more then I’d have to get a job with him at the transportation company where he worked.”
As time went on, Afonso kept on scoring goals and started to catch the eye of the country’s bigger teams. Then, in 2004, he signed for Malmo, one of Sweden’s biggest clubs. It was another new challenge, and this time he was ready for it, and able to start realising some of his dreams.“The chance to sign for one of Sweden’s top clubs was great for me. It also enabled me to fulfill one of my mother’s and my family’s dreams. I bought a beautiful flat for her and one for my sister. And I even bought a lovely house for my son Felipe. We won the league in 2004 , I finished as the second top goalscorer, and won the ‘Golden Ball’ awarded to the player of the year.”
