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“What is Portuguese for shithousery?” The interpreter laughs as he unpacks the question and then relays it to Evanilson, though judging by the broad grin on the Bournemouth striker’s face he has got the gist. The reason for the line of inquiry is because conversation has stuck on the perception of Kepler Laveran de Lima Ferreira, best known as Pepe. The defender, who retired last August aged 41, perfected the role of pantomime villain during a distinguished playing career but proved a mentor to Evanilson, who became Bournemouth’s £40m record signing last summer.
“There is a side to him where he is really kind and helpful, but on the pitch it is a different story,” Evanilson says, smiling, punching his knuckles into his palm and pointing to his ankles as if alluding to battle scars, before explaining how the three-times Champions League winner helped him adapt after joining Porto from Fluminense. “Pepe was the best person in terms of guiding me where I wanted to go. He really embraced me and where I had come from because he was from Brazil as well. It worked out because the following year [in 2021-22] we were the Portuguese champions.”
It is a light-hearted episode in an interview that spans everything from the novelty of seeing snow for the first time in Slovakia to making a Brazilian butchers in Bournemouth a regular pit stop and the stories behind his body paint and Christian cross earrings. There is a tattoo of him holding the hand of his three-year-old daughter, Maria Alice, as a baby on his right shoulder and on his left pec a message dedicated to his mother, Madalena, who died when he was 17, months before his professional debut. Evanilson considered giving up on his dream. “Nobody dies if the person is present in your heart, that’s what I have written there,” he says, pulling down his training top to reveal the words. “My mum is always present. I always pray to her. I was really close to my mum. It affected me drastically. I went back to Fortaleza because I didn’t want to go back to Rio and play.”
Evanilson, talking inside the C-shaped pavilion at Bournemouth’s striking new state-of-the-art training complex at Canford Magna, reflects on his journey with pride. “It is surreal,” he says. Another tattoo underlines as much: the word Blessed adorns his neck. The 25-year-old grew up in Cajazeiras, a district of Fortaleza, a city in north-east Brazil, where his father, Valdenir, was his first coach and he played locally for Estação before joining Fluminense of Rio de Janeiro at 13. That was a culture shock – “the north is a very kind of isolated place compared to the action of Rio and São Paulo” – but nothing compared to the step he would make as an 18-year-old.
The urban sprawl of Rio is home to about 13 million people but Evanilson was encouraged to swap that for Samorin, a town 15 miles south of Bratislava with a population of 13,000. It was a tough sell but in January 2018 Evanilson went on loan to STK 1914 Samorin, who had a link with Fluminense designed to provide promising youngsters a taste of European football. “I left 40 degrees in Rio to go to -5 … the first time I trained I couldn’t finish the session because I was too cold. When I finished I would put my hands in like boiling water because they were almost frozen.”
His spell in Slovakia, where he lived with a couple of Fluminense clubmates, taking it in turns to cook and clean, proved a restorative time. “I think it really transformed my approach to football but I had to be convinced quite a lot. I didn’t want to go initially because my friends that came back to Brazil from there didn’t say too many good things about it. But my [Fluminense] manager at the time said: ‘Look, it will transform your life as a professional player if you go.’ I felt I really grew from there. That period shaped the footballer I am now. I fell in love again with the game.”
That love is evident from the beaming look on his face. Bournemouth pay for weekly rounds of English lessons for signings and he is settled in the area, too. “My wife loves it … if the wife likes it, it helps,” he says, smiling, of his longtime partner, Mariana, who is expecting a boy. As a family they recently went to London sightseeing. Closer to home, Evanilson has located an ideal haunt and recently took a teammate, the Mexico full-back Julián Araujo, with him on a visit. “There is a shop called Ola Brazil and that’s where I get all my food from: pão de queijo, a kind of cheese bread; manioc, a root vegetable you can mix with parmesan cheese … fantastic, really nice. My favourite is pastel. It is a savoury pastry you can fill with cheese or meat and they sell it there.”
Bournemouth’s first team moved into their £35m training hub this week, which once complete will include nine full-size pitches and two padel courts. The first impressions have been resounding. “I knew before I even came that Bournemouth had big plans and wanted to be this big, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it is. The club gave me a really good presentation. l had offers from other clubs but the offer from Bournemouth inspired me the most. Even former teammates at Porto are really impressed with the style of play. Everything that they [Bournemouth] presented to me is happening: the style of play, the high intensity. I am really happy with everything.”
One of his best moments in a Bournemouth shirt was scoring against Sunday’s opponents, Manchester City, in November, when Andoni Iraola’s side ended City’s 32-game unbeaten run. It was also Bournemouth’s first win over City. Pep Guardiola’s side are the obstacle between Bournemouth and a first FA Cup semi-final. With hopes of playing at the Maracanã achieved, focus is on running out at Wembley. “We really showed who we are [in victory against City]. It was an amazing day for me but it was more important for the club because the club broke City’s deadlock in terms of the unbeaten run. If we work hard, we can beat them and make history again.”
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As a boy Evanilson was a budding artist and every day he would draw pictures for his mother. His father pushed him towards football and he became driven by the idea of transforming his family’s lives by making a career in the game. At Fluminense, he was nicknamed Lewanilson, after Robert Lewandowski, owing to his prolific goalscoring record, and at Porto he was compared to Mário Jardel, who also hails from Fortaleza. “Historically, our stories are very similar but I think Jardel is a much bigger idol than I have ever been.” These days he draws the outline of Disneyland favourites such as Mickey or Minnie Mouse for Maria Alice to paint. “I still have the drawings I used to do for my mother when I was younger,” he says. I do even more [drawing] now because of my daughter.”
Bournemouth identified Evanilson as their No 1 target to replace Dominic Solanke last summer and the move has benefited both parties, his tally of seven goals fuelling their push to eclipse their highest league finish, ninth under Eddie Howe in 2016-17. “My main goal was to be a professional footballer and then to play in the Premier League. I have achieved both of those things. I have other dreams …” The next question is akin to a tap-in. “I want to play for Bournemouth in the Champions League,” Evanilson says. “I am very optimistic that we can do that. That is my next goal.”
