Former Ba-Vi duo was the best under-20 in the world in the ‘Neymar Era’ and today is trying to start over in Portuguesa

At 33 years old, striker Henrique Almeida is trying to carve a new story in football. Having spent time in Bahia and Vitória, the player signed a contract for just three months to defend Portuguesa in the Campeonato Paulista. A very different situation from the one he experienced at the beginning of his career.

Revealed by São Paulo, Henrique caught attention in the youth categories and was top scorer and elected star of the under-20 World Cup, won by the Brazilian team in 2011, with a generation made up of stars such as Casemiro, Oscar, Philippe Coutinho, Dudu, Roberto Firmino , Lucas Moura and Neymar.

In an interview with the website Ge, Henrique Almeida spoke about the fame he gained as a young man and the direction he took in football.

“The weight is much greater, doubled. I came as the best in the world, top scorer and everything, but no one plays alone except Neymar. It was more or less that. And then it came with this weight of the World Cup and everything more, I managed to deal with it well, however, people wanted me to always solve everything and it’s not like that”, he began.

Henrique says that the weight of expectations hindered his career. After São Paulo, he played for several clubs in Brazil, including Bahia and Vitória. He defended the rubro-negro in 2010, and the tricolor in 2014. He was relegated to Série B for both.

“We are very anxious to be able to play, play, play, regardless of the place and everything, I would have waited, waited longer for the moment, I had a five-year contract at São Paulo, in short, always wanting to go out and play, regardless of the wherever it is, have a little more patience because things happen. So like Lucas, Casemiro, they stayed there in São Paulo, they had time, William José, Bruno Uvini, ended up playing, having more success. and ended up leaving later”, he added.

EXTRACTED FOR BALE NOT REAL MADRID

During the interview, Henrique says that he signed a contract with Real Madrid and trained for more than a month at the Spanish club, but remembers that bureaucratic problems prevented him from continuing in Europe. The player also says that, without a follow-up at Real, he ended up being replaced by Bale.

I got there, I trained for a month there at Castilla, but Botafogo was having legal problems, from the old days, well, from other times, so they couldn’t sell, lend or negotiate any player. And at the time Real Madrid was negotiating with Bale, that whole thing on the last day of the window, they ended up signing Bale and I couldn’t go. And I was there, I signed with Real Madrid, but I wasn’t registered for the league, so I would stay there without playing until December. And there, in common agreement with them, I decided to return to finish the championship with Botafogo and at the end of the year I would return”, he explained, before completing:

“But in the one I came back to, Willian José ended up going, I was very happy that he went, and from there he continued his career. And when the championship ended with Botafogo, we qualified for the Libertadores and then the following year I would be the nine of the 2014 Botafogo Libertadores and it ended up that Botafogo didn’t allow me to return to Real Madrid at the time. And Willian José continued there at Real Madrid”.