‘Man Utd gave me every thing however leaving the membership was the very best second of my life’
Former Manchester United striker Bebe has made the stunning admission that exiting Old Trafford was the pinnacle of his life.
The Portuguese sensation made headlines when Sir Alex Ferguson shockingly snapped him up in 2010, forking out a hefty £7.2m to Vitoria who had only just nabbed the then 20-year-old from lower league obscurity.
Bebe’s stint at Man Utd turned out to be the stuff of nightmares, having joined the giants with a mere six professional matches under his belt. He barely increased that tally at United, clocking in only seven appearances while netting twice, once against Wolves in the League Cup and another time with a right-footer during a 3-0 trouncing of Bursaspor in a Champions League face-off.
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After a string of loan spells dragged on his time at United, he was finally offloaded to Benfica in 2014, which Bebe declared as one of his life’s shining moments.
“It wasn’t that [I didn’t believe in myself], I just know what life is like and I think anyone would have the same thought as me,” Bebe candidly shared with Goal back in 2018, reports the Mirror.
(Image: GETTY)
“If you are playing in the third or fourth division in Portugal and suddenly one of the best teams in the world calls you, I think anyone would think ‘can this actually be true?
“Every day I called my agent to ask him to get me out. It was a bad time. When you do not play, even if you are at a great club, then you are not happy, so why continue?”
Bebe recalled with emotion the moment he learnt of his transfer away from the Red Devils, saying: “I remember that I was going for a United game with the youth team, and my agent called me and told me I had been sold to Benfica. It was the best moment of my life”
He reflected on his past, acknowledging the hardships he faced but also the opportunities that his United move provided. Bebe was abandoned as a child and raised in an orphanage; he sees no reason for regret as the transfer transformed not just his own life but his family’s too.
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“I can’t regret something that has given me so much food, that changed my life and the life of my family. United gave me everything,” he said, adding: “That’s where everything started for me.”
It may not have worked out on the pitch at Old Trafford, but it did away from it. “I could have a car, a house, I could buy things that I couldn’t have bought before. I could help my family and friends in things they couldn’t do, I do not regret anything. It was a very good decision from me and my agent,” Bebe explained.
He then pondered what might have been, musing: “If I had the mentality then that I have today, I would definitely still be there. I would be in a team like that. But I had a different childhood from the others, and the attitudes and thoughts I had were different.”
He finally admitted those differences shaped his career trajectory: “That did not help me at all. I would tell my younger self to train more, to be more concentrated, to be more professional.”
After a journeyman career, Bebe eventually settled with Spanish club Rayo Vallecano, and this year made a switch to Racing de Ferrol in the second division, looking ahead to the 2024/25 season.
