The making of Matheus Nunes: ‘He has a gift. We saw something special’

It was in Ericeira, a coastal resort 50km north-west of Lisbon renowned as a staple on the world surfing circuit, that Matheus Nunes, Wolves’ club-record £38m signing and one of the Premier League’s most exciting talents, learned to graft. Faced with rejection in his pursuit of turning professional, an 18-year-old Nunes juggled playing for fifth-tier Ericeirense with serving pastel de nata in Pão da Vila, a local bakery.

“I was on my feet for several hours and then I would train at the end of the day,” he said three years ago. “It wasn’t easy. I had to wake up at 5am. I didn’t have a driving licence so I would cycle there, or I would have to ask someone for a lift. By the end of three or four months I was exhausted from working and playing at the same time. So nowadays I value what I have more.”

Initially there was frustration at Ericeirense because, after relocating from Rio de Janeiro aged 12 with his mother and stepfather, Nunes was ineligible to play matches in his first year because the club required his father’s signature to be registered. In that time Nunes would only train and it quickly became clear to his coach, Ruben Franco, that he had a special player on his hands.

“He is a Brazilian guy, so he had an amazing relationship with the ball but he also had a really good intensity,” Franco says. “Even with aggressive and much more experienced players, he was amazing. We put together some clips of him and started to send them to European clubs. I was like a crazy guy because I was saying: ‘This is not a normal player, please look at him because he is different,’ and I couldn’t take him to the next phases.”

A transfer to third-tier Oriental broke down but a move to second-tier Estoril, where the attacking midfielder