\n
\n\tLONDON: There is nothing atypical about a father going to watch his son play football, even when it is thousands of kilometers from home. What is a little more unusual, however, is when the team is Khor Fakkan and the father is one of the greatest Brazilian players of all time.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn early January, the 7,500-capacity Saqr bin Mohammad Al-Qassimi Stadium hosted Bebeto, whose glittering 20-year career included star turns on the pitches of iconic grounds such as the Maracana, Camp Nou and the Bernabeu.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe legendary Brazilian striker was in town to watch his son Mattheus Oliviera, who put in his best display yet for Khor Fakkan \u2014 setting up two goals in a 5-2 victory over Baniyas.<\/p>\n
\n\tMattheus, in his first season in the UAE Pro League, has since joined Al-Nasr \u2014 making a switch this week that sees him trade a relegation battle for a fight for third place and a spot in the AFC Champions League 2 group stage.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe winger ended nearly a decade-long spell in Portuguese football to move to the UAE last summer.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt is completely new for me but I\u2019m liking the football here so far,\u201d Mattheus told Arab News in an exclusive interview. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult with the heat but I am enjoying how different it is and the people are very warm here in the UAE.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMattheus\u2019 decision to swap Portugal for the Gulf came after he sought advice from his brother-in-law Carlos Eduardo.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe midfielder was an influential player for Al-Hilal, Shabab Al-Ahli and Al-Ahli Jeddah before returning to Brazil, where he won a historic Copa Libertadores title with Botafogo last November.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI spoke with him a lot when I was in Brazil last summer,\u201d Mattheus revealed. \u201cI wanted to know about the country, the league and of course the culture.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe said a lot of good things to me so it helped me decide to sign the contract. I spoke with my family too and we agreed it was time for a new project in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOf course, Mattheus also consulted his father. The 30-year-old midfielder has followed in the footsteps of many Brazilian players who have made the UAE Pro League their home \u2014 though Bebeto is not one of them.<\/p>\n
\n\tBebeto \u2014 whose 35 goals for the Brazil national team are only surpassed by Zico, Romario, Ronaldo, Pele and Neymar \u2014 did play in the Gulf, but it was for Saudi Arabia\u2019s Al-Ittihad. The Jeddah giants were the final club of his illustrious career.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe lived in Saudi for a few months. I was probably about 8 years old,\u201d Mattheus recalled.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI can really remember him playing at Al-Ittihad, it was the last six months of his career. It\u2019s funny now that I\u2019m back here in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt is not the first time that Mattheus\u2019 career path has crossed his father\u2019s. In Brazil, the attacking midfielder came through the youth system at Flamengo, where Bebeto scored most of his goals in domestic football.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was here that Mattheus was first alerted to the ability of another, younger player in Flamengo\u2019s academy.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe first time I saw Vinicius Jr. he was around 9 years old; by the time he was 12, you already knew that he was a special player,\u201d Mattheus said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe was very fast and very confident. He can lose the ball 20 times in a game but he will try 50 more times to make things happen and one he\u2019s going to score for sure.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m very happy for him because he\u2019s my friend. I know him and I know his family. We had a good relationship and he\u2019s a very humble guy. He is playing for Real Madrid in the top of the world but is the same guy he was as a kid.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat he did last year and he continued to do this year is completely amazing and it has been great to see because I know he deserves this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tVinicius Jr. was snapped up by Real Madrid at the age of 18 but for Mattheus, the move to Europe came at a slightly later age.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter finding the label of \u201cBebeto\u2019s son\u201d tough to deal with at Flamengo, a 21-year-old Mattheus \u2014 by that time a Brazil under-20 international \u2014initially went on loan to Portuguese side Estoril and later moved to Sporting in 2021.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIn Brazil it was very difficult to be his son because he\u2019s a legend of the game there,\u201d Mattheus said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey were comparing me the whole time and you hear people saying \u2018you are only here at Flamengo and you are only going to the national team because you are Bebeto\u2019s son.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was the main reason I wanted to go to Europe because I didn\u2019t want those comparisons; I think the whole experience made me grow up faster.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut to me it will always be a blessing to have Bebeto as my father. I\u2019ve had my own personal coach, a legend of the game, teaching me the right things to do on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was on the pitch that Bebeto created one of football\u2019s most iconic moments during the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the US.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter scoring Brazil\u2019s second goal against Netherlands in the quarterfinal, Bebeto delighted the crowd at Dallas\u2019 Cotton Bowl with a \u2018baby rocking\u2019 celebration \u2014 along with teammates Romario and Mazinho.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was an instinctive, emotional tribute to Mattheus, who had been born two days earlier.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s completely crazy because I travel a lot with my family and everywhere we go, people look at me and say to him, \u2018this is the kid you did the celebration for?\u2019 It was 30 years ago and people are still doing it to him now.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTo him, the celebration was a natural thing to do because when my brother and my sister were born, he was there to get them in his arms. When he was playing in the World Cup, he wasn\u2019t there with my mother, so he did this. I love that he did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMattheus still has the photo of the celebration hanging above his bed at his family home in Brazil, but the midfielder has now forged his own path in football.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt Sporting, he counted Rafael Leao and Bruno Fernandes as friends and teammates, and played under current Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the UAE he emerged as a key creative force for Khor Fakkan, earning the move to Al-Nasr for the rest of the 2024-25 season. Still, Mattheus knows that whatever his circumstances and wherever in the world he plays, his father will always be on hand to support him.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAfter the game (against Baniyas in January), we went back to my house and he\u2019s still giving me advice. I think it\u2019s the most beautiful thing to play a game of football and have him talk to me about it afterwards.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy dad was a football player; he made history in football. I think it was in my blood to play this game and it is something special. It is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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