Leao and his childhood: “I started when I was 7. Benfica lied to me, so I went to Sporting”

Rafael Leao, stage name of singer “Way 45”, was the protagonist of the new episode of “Noisey Personal” by Vice, in which he spoke – among many topics – of his origins. “The tattoo I got, OTF, It means “Only the family” (only the family, ed.). Then I also put the postal code of my neighborhood, it means that those who have seen me grow up are the my family, so I’m always with them. My rapper name? Way in English means I walk, 45 is the postal code of my neighborhood, Bairro da Jamaica”.

Youth

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“When I was little I always played football – said Leao -. Even my friends today are those of the neighborhood. They did the things that I couldn’t do, because I started playing football when I was little. I couldn’t go dancing or something like that because there was training in the morning. I can’t say I was poor but my father had a hard time helping me. There were some friends who could buy shoes for 300 euros, I couldn’t. How did I go to school? I was I was a smart boy. When I played for Sporting I was in class with my team mates. When they started messing up, I joined them, then we had to go out because the professor couldn’t continue. I still think I was a smart and calm kid. Then there came a time when I could no longer continue school, because there were always training sessions and matches.”

At 7 years old

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“I started playing when I was seven – continued Leao -. There was a person who worked for a club near where I lived and in front of the house there was a garden where I always played together with the other children. He saw me and he asked if I had a club. I told him no but that my dad was looking for one for me. He told me to go to his team and do a couple of training sessions, then we would see. So I started playing for Mora. Three weeks later I signed with Benfica, but I didn’t have the possibility to go to training because Lisbon was far away, and they told me to don’t worry, that someone would come to accompany me to training every day. I waited a week: nobody ever came. After a week later my dad contacted them and told them I would go to another club. So I switched to Sporting. There were people close to me who said I could go far. I had the talent but then in training… I liked football, but I did not know where could I have gone. They summoned my dad and I and told us that perhaps I should have left because what I had been doing up to that moment was not enough. So I should have found another club. And there I got it into my head that I had to wake up and concentrate to work and put myself in a position to get to the top”.