Say the name Bebé to a football fan and there’s a good chance they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about. He’s the forward manager Sir Alex Ferguson signed for Manchester United in 2010 without ever having seen him play, not even on video.
He’s the high-profile transfer blunder who played just two Premier League games before being sent out on loan — first to Besiktas, then to Rio Ave, then to Pacos de Ferreira — and eventually joined Benfica in 2014. In that context, Bebé is a footnote, a curiosity and an uncharacteristic misstep as Ferguson’s 27 years at Old Trafford were coming to an end.
They probably won’t know where he’s been since. They won’t know that, aged 33, he’s now a club captain at Rayo Vallecano, 11th in LaLiga. They might have missed the four goals he scored in three consecutive games in October, including a 92nd-minute penalty winner away at Las Palmas and a 91st-minute equaliser against high-flying Real Sociedad. They might not know he’s a LaLiga cult hero, a maverick known for his ability and willingness to shoot from absolutely anywhere, at any time, with unpredictable and occasionally spectacular results.
“I have a long story behind me,” Bebé — full name Tiago Manuel Dias Correia — tells ESPN’s Martin Ainstein, sitting in the back room of a restaurant near Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, for an episode of ESPN’s “The Bicycle Diaries.” “People see me one way now. But I have a story behind me that’s completely different to the Bebé of today.”
