Emerson Royal emotional recalling ‘career saviour’ at Flamengo unveiling | OneFootball

Exclusive Interview: Elio Sizenando, Emerson Royal's Former Coach, Speaks About the Player's Career

Emerson Royal is a jokester, likes to make people laugh, and takes life lightly. However, during his press conference at Flamengo on Tuesday (29), the player had a moment of emotion: thanks to the Coluna do Fla. Our reporter asked about the importance of Elio Sizenando, Royal's first coach at Ponte Preta, which made the new number 22 speak more seriously and with gratitude.

— When I talk about Elio, I even got goosebumps. When I arrived at Ponte Preta, I was discredited because I had been released twice in the same year. I arrived without wanting to continue playing football, and he hugged me. He said: "this big guy has a very wide stride, I want him with me". I was 16 years old at the time, I'm from 1999, and I trained with the 1998 team. He hugged me and said he wanted to count on me. In my first game as a starter, I fell and broke my arm. I said "now I'll be fired again". But he promised me he wouldn't do that, that I should recover because he would take me to the Copa BH. And I recovered, he took me, I stood out in the championship, and I caught the attention of the base team. He always hugged me, scolded me a lot… Until today —, said Royal.

— Sometimes I do something wrong, he calls me and says "what game did you play?!" There's a very good intimacy with me, yesterday he called me. We talked a lot. He's a coach who is part of my career, who I consider family, I consider him a father figure in football. Eduardo Baptista also, who promoted me to the professional team at Ponte Preta, but Elio is special because it was a reconstruction. I was discredited, but he changed a switch in my head to make me a professional player —, added the player.

WHAT DID ELIO SIZENANDO SAY?

In an exclusive interview with Coluna do Fla on Monday (29), Elio told a little about his relationship with Royal. Check out the full conversation with a click here. The coach, who is currently at Pouso Alegre-MG, gave the same version as the red-black player.

“He arrived with me at Ponte Preta in 2015, through evaluation. Right in the first period, I took advantage of it and liked the player a lot. He was in a moment of biotype development. He had a wide stride, was skinny. It was in his first year of under-17, when he was still 16 years old. Emerson was approved, everything, but in his first game in the Paulista, he ended up breaking his arm against Flamengo-SP”, he declared, before concluding:

“He was very down with that injury, complained a lot in the 'DM' worried and afraid of being fired. But the physiotherapist spoke with me and I calmed him down, saying that he wouldn't be fired. That I would wait for him to recover and promised that he would go to the Copa BH. I managed to change his switch at that moment”, he finished.

HOW DID EMERSON ROYAL'S CAREER BEGIN?

With a passage through São Paulo's sub-15, Emerson Royal followed to Ponte Preta in 2015, to play in the sub-17. Three years later, the player caught the attention of Atlético-MG and followed to Belo Horizonte. Later, the player made a career in Europe, with passages through Real Bétis (ESP), Barcelona (ESP), Tottenham (ING), and Milan (ITA).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.