Be my Bebe: Manchester United have splashed out
£7.4m on a player who hadn't played a competitive game for his
club
Portuguese striker Bebe has become Manchester
United's third, and most surprising,
signing of the summer.
His £7.4m arrival from Vitoria Guimaraes takes the club's summer
spending over the £20m mark, and he joins young duo Javier
Hernandez and Chris Smalling.
Bebe, full name Tiago Manuel Dias Correia, has never played a
competitive match for Vitoria and only signed a professional
contract with them in July.
Vitoria have turned over a huge profit on the youngster
having signed him from minnows Estrela de Amadora.
Sir Alex Ferguson made a move for the Portugal Under-19 striker
on the recommendation of his former assistant and current Portugal
manager Carlos Queiroz.
Powerful: Bebe was also being closely followed by
Real Madrid before Ferguson stepped in
Bebe played in the third tier of Portuguese football
last season for Estrela, Lisbon’s third club behind Benfica and
Sporting. He is the latest to come off the club’s production line
following in the footsteps of former Portuguese internationals
Jorge Andrade and Paul Bento, as well as ex-Everton and Liverpool
defender Abel Xavier.
Ferguson is believed to have met the player on Tuesday, having
travelled to Portugal earlier in the week to act as a witness for
Queiroz in a disciplinary case with the Portuguese Football
Federation.
Highly recommended: Sir Alex Ferguson was alerted
to Bebe's availability by his former No 2 Carlos Queiroz
United beat off competition from Jose Mourinho’s Real
Madrid for the platyer, who was raised an orphan and appeared in
the Homeless World Cup after spending some time living on the
streets.
He is the son of Cape Verdean immigrants and is now the second
player at United descended form the islands, along with Portuguese
international winger Nani.
Bebe becomes the seventh striker in the United squad along with
Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen, Hernandez, Federico
Macheda and Danny Welbeck. The latter is expected to complete a
loan move to Sunderland today.
