Rafael Leao opened up about his childhood playing football and how he snubbed Benfica to join Sporting CP as a youngster.
The 23-year-old forward started out in Sporting’s youth system and progressed up the ranks before breaking into the first team in the 2017-18 season.
After a group of ultras stormed the club’s training ground and confronted the players, Leao terminated his contract with Sporting to join Lille, a decision that is still following the forward, who now has to pay a debt to the Portuguese club.
Speaking to Vice’s ‘Noisey Personal’, Leao first discussed his childhood and the early stages of his relationship with football.
“I was always playing football. Even my friends today are my neighbourhood friends. They used to do the things I couldn’t do, because I started playing football as a kid. I couldn’t go dancing or anything like that because there was practice in the morning.
“I was always playing football there, all day long. When I can I go back to Portugal and go there, my relatives are there, and I go to see them. When I was little, I can’t say I was poor, but my father went through hard times to help me.
“There were friends who could buy €300 shoes, I couldn’t. Whereas today I can buy whatever I want, I can help my family because my dad doesn’t work, nor does my mum. I can help them.”
The 23-year-old remembered his times at school and how he almost joined Benfica before eventually becoming a part of Sporting’s youth system.
“I think I was a smart kid. When I played in Sporting, I went to the same class with my camp mates. When they started to mess around I would start too, then we had to leave because our teacher couldn’t continue.
“However, I think I was an intelligent and quiet kid. There came a time when I couldn’t continue school because there were practices and games. Even as a child my dad tried to find a club for me, I started playing that way when I was seven.
“Where I lived there was someone who worked for a club nearby, and in front of the house there was a garden where I always played with the other children. I was always there playing, he saw me and asked me if I played somewhere.
“I told him no and that my dad was there and he was looking for a club to start. He told me to go to his team and do a couple of training sessions, then we would see. I went there, did a training session and started at that club, it’s called Mora.
“Three weeks later I signed with Benfica, but I didn’t have the chance to go to training because Lisbon was far away, and they told me to stay calm, that someone would come to accompany me to training every day.
“I signed with Benfica, waited a week: they never arrived. A week later my dad contacted them and said I was going to another club. So I went to Sporting, and then from there… There were people close to me who said I could go far.
“I had the talent but then in training… I liked football, but in my head, I didn’t know where I could go in the future. Then there was a meeting with me and my dad, they told us that maybe I should leave because what I was doing up to that moment was not going well.
“So maybe I should have found another club. And that’s when I got it into my head that I had to wake up and concentrate on working and putting myself in a position to get to the top. I want to win a lot of things, important things, be important in my club and win individual trophies.”
Finally, Leao discussed his goals in football and music.
“In football the Champions League, in music to bring my name as high as possible. To be known at the top in music.”
Things have recently taken a tough turn for Leao in Milan; coach Stefano Pioli has left him on the bench for the start of their last three consecutive outings and multiple reports suggest that contract renewal talks with the club are not progressing.