EXCLUSIVE ON STUNNING RISE OF
UNITED'S 'NEW RONALDO'
HE GREW up playing football in the dusty streets of a slum known as
The Ghetto.
As a scrawny youngster, Nani's friends laughed when he told them he
would one day play for Manchester United.
But this month the Portuguese wonderkid shook hands with Sir Alex
Ferguson after agreeing a £17million move to Old Trafford -
completing an astonishing rags-to-riches story.
Next season the 20-year-old winger will line up alongside
superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney at Old
Trafford.
The glitzy lifestyle he is now guaranteed - not to mention his
£30,000-a-week salary - could not be further removed from his
povertystricken childhood.
Abandoned by his parents, Nani - real name Luis Carlos Almeida da
Cunha - was raised by a loving aunt in a crumbling one-bedroom home
in a crime-ridden district of Lisbon.
Proud Antonia Almeida, 47, told Sunday Mirror Sport: "Nani grew up
surrounded by hardship and suffering, but the fight for survival
has made him the young man and player he is today."
Nani was born in the impoverished Amadora neighbourhood of the
Portuguese capital, the youngest of nine children.
His parents Maria and Domingos had emigrated from Cape Verde, a
group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of
Africa.
Nani was just five when his father left for a holiday in Cape Verde
and never returned. But two years later a chance meeting at a
football club changed the youngster's life forever.
Antonia said: "Nani's father left and a few years later his mother
moved to Holland, and so I raised him as if he were one of my own
children.
"For as long as I remember, he was always playing football.
"He would play for six or seven hours a day, anywhere and with
anyone, pretending he was his hero Luis Figo. He even slept with
his football in his bed. When he was eight he went to watch his
older brother play at the local team, Real Sport Clube Massama, and
couldn't resist kicking the ball himself.
"He dribbled the ball around some of the older lads. One of the
coaches spotted his talent straight away and asked him to come
back. Within a year he was signed up. And since then his life has
been all about football.
"He told his friends if he worked hard enough he would play for
Manchester United and they laughed at him.
"But he has proved everyone wrong by his hard work and
determination.
"While others were getting involved in crime or drugs, Nani was
training. He had to walk three miles a day to training and back
again because we couldn't afford the money for the train.
"If he was late he had to take the train and dodge the fare. The
police brought him home once and ticked him off for fare-dodging.
But nothing would stop him playing football."
Antonia raised Nani in a cramped home built from breeze-blocks on
the edge of the Santa Filomena estate in Amadora.
The one-storey house is surrounded by rubble, old mattresses and
rusted corrugated iron. Outsiders refuse to enter the area they
call The Ghetto. One of Europe's most deprived neighbourhoods, it
is populated mostly by immigrants from Cape Verde and Angola.
Today Antonia has moved out of the area after the footballing
sensation helped buy her a three-bedroom flat nearby in the
city.
And the run-down home where Nani grew up is set to be
demolished.
Nani's mother, Maria do Ceu Almeida, left Portugal to start a new
life in Holland when her son was 12.
Antonia said: "The family background is complicated. But last year
I took Nani to Cape Verde to meet his father for the first time
since he walked out.
"It was a very emotional meeting. They are now back in contact with
each other. And his mother Maria has moved back to Portugal and
they're getting on well too." Nani played for Massama for eight
years before being signed up by Sporting Lisbon aged 16.
There he joined up with Cristiano Ronaldo - who shared a similar
background, brought up in poverty on the Portuguese island of
Madeira.
Now he is being tipped to match Ronaldo's impact on the Premier
League by Manuel Fernandes, who spent last season on loan from
Benfica at Portsmouth and Everton and plays with Nani for
Portugal's Under-21 side.
Fernandes said: "Nani is young but I know he can become a big star.
He has so many qualities to his game.
"He have the same big impact as Cristiano. He has signed for the
perfect club because they will develop him as a player and he will
have Ronaldo and Carlos Queiroz to help him.
"Maybe people will ask whether Nani will be able to cope with the
physical nature of the game in England. All I can say is that it
wasn't a problem for me and I think it will be the same for him."
Nani's first coach at Massama, Luis Neves, said: "When he first
arrived Nani was a scrawny little kid, but he had an incredible
talent and ability. He is shy and timid off the pitch, but as soon
as he's on the pitch he comes alive. For Nani, every match is like
a party.
"He came and trained with us for five hours a day, every day, since
the age of eight. Now that dedication is paying off."
Nani passed through the Sporting Lisbon academy with Ronaldo before
making his first-team debut aged 18 in 2005.
He scored on his debut for Portugal against Denmark in September
last year - celebrating in spectacular style with his trademark
back-flip and somersault.
His agility comes from years of practising the Brazilian martial
art of Capoeira - his second passion.
Nani said: "I was born to play football and I have nothing to fear
whatsoever. My strength will help me and I believe I will
succeed.
"Manchester United are the biggest club in the world. I always
dreamed of this and now my time has come."
FULL NAME: Luis Carlos Almeida da Cunha
BORN: November 17 1986
HEIGHT: 5ft 9in
2005
Debut for Sporting Lisbon. Made 61 appearances, scoring 10
goals.
2006
Made his Portugal debut and scored in a friendly against Denmark.
Has won six caps and scored two goals.
2007
Joined Manchester United for £17million.
