My beloved little brother Noah! I love you so much! For me, you are number one, nothing more.

Since childhood, I felt there was something special between us. I’ve never said this to you, but it’s as if you have to wait for me to score before being born.

That’s right, little brother. He still remembers that day, he was only 13 years old and was playing an important match. I still don’t want to step out into this world. The clock kept ticking, my parents were getting impatient and wondering what I was waiting for. Then suddenly, the three of us received a phone call from a friend who was watching your match live.

The friend announced, “Douglas! Douglas! Endrick just scored!”

Then right at that moment, all everyone in the delivery room heard was the baby’s cries. Wow wow wow!

I finally went out to celebrate with you. When I arrived at the hospital, I gave you a birthday gift. At that time, I had no money to buy toys, so I gave you the Golden Ball award that I received from the tournament.

See Noah? Our family has no conditions, we were not born in luxury. You and I were born into football.

I don’t know when you will read this letter, you are only 4 years old now and our family’s life is changing rapidly. In the next few months, I’ll be going to Spain to play for Real Madrid – that’s right, the team I always see you choose to play for on PlayStation. He knew the whole world would want to hear his family’s story. And that’s not an ordinary story, honey! So, this is my chance to tell you what really happened, with the help of my parents.

—-

As you know, in our house, everything always starts and ends with the ball. Mom said that when I was a kid, I never yelled “vrooom” (car engine sound) like you. If you give me a toy, I will hold it for 5 seconds and then immediately put it back in the box. All he wants is “ball, ball, ball” .

A ball made of tape. A ball is rolled out of a sock. Or a basketball. It doesn’t matter what you do with it. As long as it’s round, or even square, he wants to kick it. When he was given the Brazuca World Cup ball from his father’s team in Vlada , he just stared at the colors on it, as if it were a painting. He even slept with it! Football seems to be in our blood.

You can ask mom how I introduce myself to people.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“FRONTARD Endrick Felipe Moreira de Sousa.”

Everyone who heard that laughed at him. What a cute kid!

But little brother, I’m serious.

He believed he would succeed, and his mother still cries when she remembers it.

Mom always said words have power.

At that time, our family did not live in a luxurious apartment like we do now. That yogurt dish I like, our house didn’t have a refrigerator at that time. My family lived in a place called Vila Guaira, and our lives were very different from now. Later, my parents will tell me about those difficult days. But even without these conditions, thanks to God’s grace and his parents’ sacrifices, he had a wonderful childhood. And of course thanks to football.

Ah, it seems like I’ve never told you this story before. When I was your age, the road in front of our house was very steep. He often plays soccer with the neighbor kids on that road. The rule of the game is that if someone runs down the slope with the ball and doesn’t shoot it, they must run and chase it down the slope to get the ball up. Therefore, anyone who passes the ball past someone and misses the shot must run and rest to catch the ball. Maybe that’s why we play football so well.

It’s tiring, but that’s the rules of street soccer, you have to follow them.

Missed shot? Then you have to run down to get the ball!

I miss that time so much, when I was just a kid and football was still a game. After we finished playing soccer, we all sat around together, or as we used to call it at that time, it was… resenha (“review”, review of the match). If only we could go back to those days and play soccer together.

Thinking back, I feel both happy and sad. So many beautiful memories that cannot be returned!

Even sad memories can sometimes be fun to look back on.

 

Someday when I grow up, I will hear people talk about “sofa conversations” . Now in Brazil, everyone talks about it, but it’s all wrong. They said their family was poor and had nothing to eat. But that’s not the case. Our parents did not let our brothers and sisters live like that. People don’t know how their brothers’ mothers sacrificed. She always objected to them: “God gave birth to me as a woman, I am their mother, how can I let my children lack food!?”

The truth is that that day he saw his father cry. He was 10 years old at that time, and perhaps for the first time in his life he understood his family’s difficult situation.

However, our dining table always has enough food we need .

It’s just that there isn’t always enough food that you want .

Do you understand the difference?

At that time, my family only had enough to eat. Dad said that that day, he sat on the sofa and told him: “Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I will become a football player and get our whole family out of this situation.”

Before that, he was still a boy and football was just a pure game to him.

But after that day, football became the way for my whole family to have a better life.

A few weeks later, he went to Sao Paulo city to join the Palmeiras academy. He set his first goal: Creating a better life for his family.

Setting goals is an important part of your life. It’s also a way for him to talk to God. When he arrived in Palmeiras, he knew he would get at least two or three meals a day at school and at the training center. It’s just that, for mom, things are not that simple…

His mother decided to leave behind her life in her hometown to go to Sao Paulo to help him pursue his dream. The club only had room for him, but his mother was determined to never leave him alone in the city. Dad stayed to work and send money to his mother and brother. Then, his mother moved to live with him in a small house with some of his teammates from the football team. Everyone lives under one roof. But when we went out to practice, mom had no one to talk to. There was no TV or internet in the house, so my mother often took her Bible to the park, sat and talked to God alone. The house was narrow so my mother only had one chair to store her bags on. At night, when we went to bed, mother spread a thin mattress on the floor and slept there.

Now that I think about it, you certainly won’t be able to imagine that our mother had to sleep on the floor, but it was true. That’s true.

Many times our mothers have to count the last coins they have left. Even though my dad sent money to my mom and brother, at that time there was still no Pix (the instant payment and transfer platform created by the Central Bank of Brazil), so I couldn’t send the money right away. Sometimes it takes a day or two for the money to be transferred. On good days, when receiving money from his father, his mother would make extra sausages for his teammates. But most days, we only have enough to eat. Mom often felt guilty cooking in the house, because his teammates could smell the meat, and they would ask if she cooked anything for them to eat. What should she say? What’s left?

Then, because she felt so hurt, she decided not to cook for us anymore.

There are times when I feel a little hungry right before bed, like, not really hungry but still want to eat. He often asked his mother if there was anything, and she would say, “Try to sleep, Endrick. Once you sleep, you’ll stop being hungry.”

Sometimes, when I’m short of money, my mother can borrow some rice or change to buy food for us. But then one day… Mom had nothing left to borrow. Mom has no money and no one else to borrow from.

Mom called dad and said, “Douglas, you and I are starving… I don’t know what to do.”

Dad sent 50 reais, but it wasn’t until the next day that the money arrived. All I could do was kneel and pray to God for help. Then mom took her bag down from the chair and started emptying everything out, rummaging through to the bottom.

I found 2 reais, little brother! Small coins. A gift from God.

Mom went to the grocery store and bought some old bread left over from two days ago. Now if you ask your mother, she will definitely say it tastes delicious. Mom will tell you that hunger gives us a strange feeling, it makes even a piece of stale bread taste like heaven.

Honestly, I wish I didn’t have to tell you these stories, because poverty is nothing to be proud of. I hope that you will never have to go through that situation, like my mother had to endure. But the story of our family cannot lack that part. Whenever you see your mother, my brother, please hug her tightly and say thank you, because without her sacrifice, we would not have the life we ​​have today.

 

In fact, it wasn’t until recently that he heard these stories, because his mother always hid her pain to protect and nurture his dream. He had never seen his mother cry. If she cries, she usually goes to the bathroom so he doesn’t find out. Many times my mother called my father to say that she couldn’t stand it any longer, and that she wanted to go home. But as soon as you and your teammates come home from practice, we tell mom how that day was, about the goals we scored… she sees your eyes light up…

And then, mom still stayed. For you. Because we .

That’s our mother, little brother! Mom always does what is necessary for her children. Sometimes my mother was a sergeant, scolding and telling my brothers to listen, but they never listened. But other times, mom can hug us and make us the most delicious fried eggs in the world. No matter what mom does, remember that it’s all for one simple reason. Mom always wants what’s best for us.

Dad also sacrificed a lot for his family. After a few months, Dad also went to Sao Paulo to help Mom. He went to Palmeiras and applied for a job there, doing anything. Luckily, the club is in need of a position. That’s in the cleaning team at the stadium. When we were young, our father always wished that one day he could step into the Palmeiras dressing room, so every time he went to work, he always smiled brightly. He worked there for three years, initially picking up trash around the stadium and then being promoted to cleaning the first team’s dressing rooms. Dad also told the Palmeiras players at that time that one day his son would be able to play with them.

One day, goalkeeper Jailson discovered that his brothers’ father was getting thinner and thinner. Normally, the cleaning crew and club staff would eat with the players in the canteen, but he saw the three of us only eating porridge. So Jailson put his hand on his dad’s shoulder and said, “Hey Douglas, give me your phone, I want to call your wife.”

Dad was so angry, “Call my wife? What do you have in mind?”

Jailson immediately corrected, “No, no, don’t misunderstand that. I want to ask her what’s going on. I saw that he didn’t drink anything, only ate porridge. I wonder if anything is wrong with you?”

Dad was afraid to explain, so Jailson actually called Mom, and Mom told him the story. When we were children, our father burned his hand while grilling meat, almost losing his entire hand. Doctors had to give Dad strong doses of antibiotics to fight infection, so his teeth were weak. By the time my father worked for Palmeiras, all his teeth were loose and about to fall out. The three of us can only eat porridge.

Jailson decided to collect money from all the players, to help the three of us get our teeth fixed. He was so surprised that he cried. But God is amazing, isn’t he, little brother!

Our father often said, “My dream is very simple, it is to bite an apple.”

Thank God, because now Dad can bite whatever he wants.

Around the same time, his second goal was achieved. We moved into an apartment above a lottery store right next to Palmeiras’ stadium. Every morning he wakes up and every night he goes to bed, he can look out the window and see his dreams.

How beautiful everything is!

 

Oh wait, I forgot to tell you the whole story about dad…

If our mother is a superhero, then our father is our brother’s companion. It’s always like that. But there is a whole sky of stories about my father that I do not know. If you think the life I have experienced is miserable, you are sorely mistaken. Compared to my father, my childhood was nothing, I felt like I was living in paradise. When we were children, our grandfather was not always at home. Football is also a way for dad to find a way out. When he was just 15 years old, his father ran away from home and hitchhiked from Brasilia to Sao Paulo. Almost half the distance he had to walk on the highway! Really walking! It’s a long way, little brother! Dad didn’t even bother to tell grandma! All the way, Dad carried all his possessions, a pair of soccer shoes, two 2-liter bottles of water – one bottle of filtered water, the other bottle of powdered fruit juice – and some bread. His plan is to try enrolling in all the clubs in the city. He had to hitchhike and walk all week!

When we finally arrived in Sao Paulo, our father was broke and had nowhere to go, so he had to wander around knocking on every club’s door asking for their enrollment schedule. Luckily, someone at Sao Paulo FC saw his father’s situation and gave him some food from the canteen. Then one cold night, a lady from a charity organization saw her father sleeping under a tree in the park, so she invited him to a place of refuge. Unfortunately, it was too warm there, and my father hadn’t been able to sleep in bed for more than three nights, so he overslept and missed the Nacional AC Club’s recruiting session the next day.

Can you imagine how tired Dad is? Walking all week to pursue your dream, just to get to that one audition… but you missed it?

When my dad told me this story, you know, little brother, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

One night, because it was raining, my father had no shelter and didn’t know where to go, so he walked to the Palmeiras Club’s stadium and slept under the awning of the ticket counter. Although the dream did not come true, my father fought and pursued it with all his might.

When he returned to Brasilia, he had to play in the Várzea tournament to make a living. Surely you know what várzea is? There’s no way you’ll get any salary if you play that tournament. Only passion exists. People play in that tournament just to earn “a little bit”. The three of us play soccer to get money to pay the electricity bill, or buy some rice. As a child, he followed his father to the field through each of his matches, fumbling with the ball on the sidelines. At halftime, everyone put on music, everyone partied, had fun, and bet, and he took the opportunity to go out onto the field to do some technical moves. (Or maybe that’s why now every time he plays a match, he sings to himself?)

Every time after matches, dad would wait for him outside the field and ask, “Endrick, where did you get that bottle of Coca-Cola? Who did you steal from?”

He immediately explained, “No, no, I hit the crossbar, so Dudu over there won 10 reais. He bought me a bottle of Coke because he won a bet thanks to me. If you hit the crossbar again, he’ll buy you another skewer of grilled meat!”

That was his money-making trick that day! My mother also told me that when he was a child, he crawled around playing football on the dirt field so much that when he came home, he was completely black. But you know what color sandy soil is in Brazil! Mom had to bathe and scrub him like a dog. It’s clean, just like a shot, he rushes out onto the field like a rocket.

(Remember what I said earlier? We were born in football.)

His dream is not only his own, but also his father’s, his grandfather’s, and the whole family’s.

Think about it, at night Dad had to sleep under the awning of the ticket counter at Palmeiras Stadium, did he ever dream that one day his son would be able to play football there?

 

At the age of 15, he signed a professional contract with Palmeiras. At that moment, he truly felt like he had everything, thanks to God’s grace. He was able to buy a house for his mother, get both his grandmother and grandmother out of Chaparral, that area was dangerous. So after a conversation with his father on the sofa, he knew he had achieved his first goal: Bringing a better life to his family.

It was definitely a memorable moment of a lifetime!

But… it’s also a relief, little brother!

When I was little, our lives were very different. Life will change a lot in the next few years.

In a few months, I will go to Spain and you will go with me. Real Madrid… That is his third goal, but one he never dared to think about. When he was 7 or 8 years old, he didn’t have a phone, so he had to borrow his mother’s computer to watch Real Madrid highlights. I know I’m too young to remember all these names, but Real Madrid’s 2013/14 season lineup with Cristiano, Modric, or Benzema is really great. It was like a door opening to him about the club’s history. I started going to YouTube and learning about the Galacticos collective, then digging deeper into Puskas, Di Stefano… Believe me, if you come to Madrid with me, you will no doubt hear about these legendary names. Stop.

YouTube teaches everything in life, just like college. Above all, he loves Cristiano Ronaldo the most, not only watching his highlights, but also videos recording training scenes, hearing people talk about his hard work, or his fighting spirit. . Thanks to Cristiano, he learned the lesson that hard work is more important than talent.

I hope one day I can meet him once. I haven’t been able to meet you yet, so I wrote it down here to make a wish. But his son follows me on Instagram, so hopefully by the time you read this letter, I’ll have shaken Cristiano’s hand. Hopefully everything at Real Madrid and your career will go smoothly, so Cristiano will follow you again! Who knows, maybe he’ll follow me too! Hahaha.

Meet Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s goal number four.

 

The fifth goal is to finish this season with Palmeiras, having a satisfying ending with the Paulista championship.

As for the sixth goal… it’s very funny. A few months ago, when he first visited Real Madrid, many unbelievable things happened. When he met Florentino Perez, he looked straight into our father’s eyes and declared, “Real Madrid will be the only club that treats Endrick like a son.”

I had to look at my father’s face at that moment to see how touched he was. Mr. Perez’s words are really meaningful to me.

He also met Bellingham, the superhero on PlayStation, who always scores goals for him. Everyone called him Jude, so I told him: “Hey Jude, next time you score a goal, you’ll celebrate it my way.” After scoring, he immediately sent the video to Jude on Instagram, and he even reposted it.

You probably wouldn’t believe that I was also taught by Ronaldo, O Fenômeno ! Everything happened so quickly, it was like a dream. But the most memorable moment was definitely when he went into the dressing room and talked to Luka Modric. Modric’s number 10 shirt hung on the hook. He pointed to the seat next to him and said, “Number 9 and number 10. Who knows… next season, you’ll sit next to me.”

Those words really touched him. He thought to himself, “Oh my god, if Modric believes he deserves to wear the number 9 shirt, then he definitely deserves it.”

Now he hasn’t joined Real Madrid yet so he doesn’t know how it will turn out, but hopefully one day he will wear the club’s number 9 shirt.

What about goal number seven? I want to have my own house in Madrid, with an office where I can hang a big whiteboard and write all my goals on it ! Hahaha. Mom still insisted that he not let him hang a whiteboard in the house!

“There’s no room Endrick! There is absolutely no room for that board!”

That’s how our mothers are. So we all have to respect our mother.

 

Actually, he still has one more goal, but let’s not number it, because it has already been completed. That his little brother gets to live the life he wants, no matter what.

For three generations, maybe even more, our family has all pursued their football dreams. Our whole family tried our best to change our lives. But now, I can do whatever I want. Doctors, lawyers, or even tennis players are fine, because soon we will go to Spain, the hometown of Nadal and Alcaraz. I also started chasing the ball like you, so if you want, just pursue your passion for soccer. But if you don’t want it, you don’t need it. Thank God, thank you parents, and thank you football, because now there is no more pressure.

Just enjoy life your way, little brother. That’s the gift I want to give you.

And now, this is the end of the letter and the future will begin. People often ask him about Real Madrid, about the national team, and about the future of his career. But do you know what the truth is?

You simply don’t know.

That’s life, no one knows what tomorrow will bring. Who knows, maybe tomorrow won’t even come. All we can do is be grateful to God for what He has given us.

 

Hope you understand now, little brother. The life we ​​are living now does not come naturally. It comes at the cost of hard work and many tears. Mom always said that a single mistake could ruin everything, and she was right.

The moment we forget our roots, we risk losing our way.

That’s why I gave you the gift of my family’s history.

Image of mother eating expired bread.

Picture of dad sleeping under the awning of the ticket counter.

Image of mother crying in the bathroom.

Picture of dad crying on the sofa.

Always keep these images in your heart, little brother!

I love you so much, from the bottom of my heart, my little brother!

FORWARD Endrick Felipe Moreira de Sousa.