Kenedy has revealed how his mother was dubious about the amount of football he played as a youngster as she did not think it would be a viable career path for him. Kenedy grew up playing in the favelas of Santa Rita do Sapucai.
When he was 10, Kenedy moved to Rio in order to pursue his dream to be a football player. The Chelsea player, currently on loan at Newcastle, opened up to the Daily Mail about his humble beginnings.
“We couldn’t afford pictures so I used to make newspaper cuttings of my idols — Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Adriano — and put them all over the walls. My sister did not say too much, because my dad loved football just as much as me!
“My mum did not want me playing all day,” he recalled. “I once escaped the house and she locked the door to leave me outside. When I was finally allowed back in, she screamed all night!
“I did not have shoes or football boots. We played in bare feet. We didn’t have a doctor, so if you broke a toe or cut your foot, you just carried on until the game finished. Then you went home and put it in ice!
“Whoever won the game got a bottle of Coca-Cola from the losers…and I always won. We used two big stones as goalposts and played all day and night, or at least until the owner of the ball wanted to go home, and that was that.”
