Never more than three and a half years stuck in the same club. From Benfica to Al-Hilal there is more than one person who has wondered why a player of Joao Cancelo’s caliber has not managed to build solid continuity in a team for longer. There is no question of talent, but character has sometimes taken over the field; performance slipped away and left (too much) room for tense episodes, outbursts, arguments with coaches that caused the player to end up on the sidelines “because” of the boy. They call him temperamentthat centrifugal force that sometimes distances and leads to breakups of poisonous goodbyes.
That’s how it is done, someone summed it up. But Like this as? He defines himself as a “dreamer” because “this is what keeps me alive” but in reality in 2013 he too died a little with his mother. Filomena, tattoo on her arm and scar on her heart of the greatest pain. A life cut short by a car accident on a night when Joao and his younger brother Pedro were also in that same car. The two are saved, the woman is not and since then Cancelo has lived with this void. Memory and lack that have become fuel to move forward in life and in football, because everything since then has been dedicated to her. Eight teams in ten years and in 6 different countries, from Benfica of the greats to the golden Al-Hilal, plus 14 trophies on his CV. But also some arguments…