Ederson reveals that he almost quit football after facing rejection from Benfica
Manchester City broke the transfer record for a goalkeeper and splashed £35 million to secure the services of Ederson Moraes in the summer of 2017. The Brazilian made an immediate impact between the sticks and lived up to Pep Guardiola’s expectations of a dynamic sweeper keeper in his debut season in England, helping the Citizens win the Premier League title last season.
Ederson,25, has been equally impressive this term as well, conceding 17 goals from 21 games, a record that has been bettered only by Liverpool’s Alisson and Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga. However, the Brazilian has revealed that things haven’t been so rosy and comfortable for him always, especially after facing tough rejections in his earlier days at Sao Paulo and Benfica.
The academy bosses at Sau Paulo left a 15-year-old Ederson crushed and depressed and discarded him for no good reason other than they thought he not quite good enough.
“It was a difficult situation,” he says. “I was only 15 years old and I went through a tough moment, spent one month depressed and was thinking of quitting. Luckily, my parents supported me and encouraged me to go back to playing.”
The second phase of rejection in his career came at Benfica where the coaches thought that he would never make it to the first-team and flogged him to second division club Ribeirao, only for them to realise their mistake and buy him back in 2015.
Ederson has done brilliantly to keep quiet and prove his critics wrong and he revealed that he idolised the legendary Brazilian goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni as a kid.
He says: “The passion I had for being a goalkeeper made me follow the career of Rogerio Ceni and even now I still watch videos of him on YouTube and he still gives me inspiration today.”
