From Barcelona to Bengaluru FC: The tale of Nili's broken dreams and courage to fight on

Nili suffered from anxiety episodes and left Barcelona within a year for Albacete and from there Greek club Platanias - to start from scratch.
From Barcelona to Bengaluru FC: The tale of Nili's broken dreams and courage to fight on

BENGALURU: From playing alongside Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta at FC Barcelona to donning the blue jersey of Bengaluru FC, Francisco Jose Perdomo Borges (aka Nili) has had a life-changing experience in the last three years.

The Las Palmas youth academy product was once touted to replace Aleix Vidal at FC Barcelona’s right-back and a good year with the club’s first team prompted the then coach Luis Enrique to sign him. But the immense pressure of expectations at the Catalan giants had his time cut short at the club as he described his broken dreams in a radio interview in Spain, “I was ready to take on the world by storm. But I was wrong.”

What could have been his time to thrive, Nili suffered from anxiety episodes and left Barcelona within a year for Albacete and from there Greek club Platanias — to start from scratch — much like his Barcelona teammate Andre Gomes, who also suffered the same fate after arriving from Valencia. At present, Gomes is thriving at Everton in England.

“It was great to have the opportunity to train every day with a player like Messi. You can learn from every minute of training with him,” Nili reminisced. “I was young and it was a big jump from Las Palmas to Barcelona. There, the pressure is so much because you need to win every game and every title. It’s not only bad for the team and the players but also fans. You play well, you stay or you don’t play well and the coach doesn’t like you.”

Perhaps, it was Nili’s difficult childhood that had an impact on him and the pressure to perform became unbearable. As a child, Nili was left on the streets and had to steal food to survive as his mother suffered from substance abuse.

“My life was not easy. My parents fought all the time and when I was 7, I left with my mother. She had problems with drugs and alcohol. She used to hit me and I lived on the streets. I didn’t have any money and I used to go look into the houses through the windows and take the food sometimes,” explained the 26-year-old.

The Spaniard has a tattoo of Zeus — the god of thunder and sky in Greek mythology — on his left arm in memory of his grandfather, who saved him from those difficult days. The other dozen tattoos include Buddha and a lion, which signify different chapters of his life. “My grandfather was the most important person in my life. He was an angel. When I was 10, he saw me and took me with him. He put me in Las Palmas youth academy and that’s how my life changed,” he said.

All those dark days are now in the past. Nili is once again ready to take the next step – give his everything, deal with the pressure and fight for titles which he missed at Albacete and Platanias. It was Aridane Santana, his Albacete teammate and now Odisha FC striker, who influenced him in joining Bengaluru. And Nili didn’t want to miss the chance to play alongside Sunil Chhetri, the India skipper with more international goals than Messi.

“I read everything about Sunil before coming here. It’s crazy that here entire India is looking at Sunil while the entire world is looking at Messi and I played with both. It is a crazy opportunity. Moreover, I wanted to come to a club which fights for titles. I like the environment around the club, so I’m very happy to be here and want to help the team achieve targets,” said Nili, who has already impressed at the club, adding flair to the Bengaluru attack. He scored one and assisted four in Bengaluru’s 9-1 rout over Bhutan’s Paro FC in the AFC Cup qualifier.

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The New Indian Express
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