The transfer of Bebe to Manchester United for £7.4 million in the summer of 2010 remains one of the most bizarre transfers in recent times, as Sir Alex Ferguson sanctioned the purchase of an unknown player who had been playing in the third tier of Portuguese football.
Having just joined Cordoba on loan from Benfica after making just one appearance since joining on a free following the expiration of his Manchester United contract, the enigmatic winger has spoken about his time at Old Trafford for the first time.
Bebe had only just signed for Vitoria de Guimaraes when news came through that Manchester United were trying to sign him, so understandably he thought it was some sort of joke:
I had a contract with a termination clause of €9m and within two days there was a team that wanted to pay it. And I went to Manchester. I thought they were joking.
The circumstances around Bebe's transfer will be debated for many years to come, as some feel it was a deal set up to keep United in super-agent Jorge Mendes' good books, although we may never know the true reasons of how and why this transfer came about. Much was publicised about Bebe's difficult childhood, and while not all of it was true, it seems as though the change of scenery was overwhelming to the young man who had spent much of his childhood in a homeless shelter, but he does feel that he has grown from the experience:
I learned a lot with Ferguson. What went wrong? Well, I was alone. I needed more experience to deal with that. 'In Manchester I was a child and was alone. I've grown and I am a better person, very different.
Bebe enjoyed some success on loan at Pacos de Ferreira last season, but he has since been deemed surplus to requirements at Benfica and will now try his luck in the Primera Division in Spain.
via Daily Mail.
