Bebe living the dream: From rags to riches (Feature)

By Emilio Rappold Aug 19, 2010, 15:50 GMT

Lisbon - A fairytale like story has gripped the football world.

Manchester United has paid nine million euros (11.5 million dollars) for a player who last year still played at the Homeless World Cup.

Tiago Manuel Dias Correia, 20, who is simply called Bebe by his fans, slept next to rubbish bins and on newspapers not too long ago and even though he can now afford to live in luxury in England, he has kept his room in the orphanage Casa do Gaiato in Loures, a suburb of Lisbon.

'When he said good-bye to us, we all cried,' Ana Maria, who is a a carer at the home, told the German press agency, dpa.

'Who is he?' Manchester United fans have been asking since the club signed Bebe.

A look at his previous clubs does not offer up much. He did not play youth football and after spending just one season playing for relegated second division club Estrela da Amadora, first division club Vitoria Guimaraes bought him a few weeks ago for 50,000 euros and sold him at a huge profit soon afterwards.

He scored five goals for Vitoria in seven pre-season friendlies and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: 'If you read his life-story you think you would be reading a fairy-tale.'

Ferguson did not see the 1.90m-tall Bebe play a single second, instead accepting the recommendation of his scouts and friend and former assistant Carlos Queiroz.

Guimaraes coach Antonio Machado is sure that Ferguson and the Portuguese national coach were right in their assessment. 'I only had him with me for a few weeks, but I have been following him for a long time.

'He can become a real world star.'

His former Amadora coach Jorge Paixao is also confident that Bebe will make the grade in England. 'He is very different kind of player. He learnt his skills in some dubious areas and is now a creative and cheeky player.'

Fans who have seen him play describe Bebe as a mixture between Ruud Gullit and Cristiano Ronaldo, but as only a handful of people have seen him he remains an largely unknown entity in Portugal.

'Until very recently I did not know him at all,' Antonio Magalhaes, who is deputy editor at the Portuguese sports newspaper Record said.

Even Bebe has trouble coming to terms with his rags-to-riches story. 'A dream has come true,' he said recently in a radio interview.

Father Arsenio, who runs the orphanage in Loures, said: 'The move to Manchester shocked him. He cried for two days and did not really want to leave. He walked from one corner of the home to another.

'He has become a role model and inspiration for the children and youth in the home, but he remains shocked.'

Although Bebe is only 20, he has seen more hardship in his life than most other people experience in a lifetime. When he was 10- years-old his parents, who were immigrants from Cape Verde, left him.

He spent the following years fighting his way through the streets and he used the 1,300 euros he received - sporadically - from the near bankrupt club Amadora - to help friends in the orphanage and on the street.

Since joining United, whose stadium Old Trafford is called Theatre of Dreams, he is earning 65,000 euros a month.

'He has to learn to live with fame and fortune from one day to the next. That is not easy, but he has learnt a lot with us,' Father Arsenio said.