How often does one get to chase a football dream in Europe alone at the age of just 15 years old? How often does one get to score 4 goals in an AFC Cup match? And how often does one get to have their National Team football jersey be displayed in the FIFA Museum? Junpiter Futbol had the privilege to sit down with Macau National Team’s Captain, Nicholas Torrao, who has achieved all of the above in Macau, for a coffee and an exclusive chat.
Growing Up
I was born in South Africa. But because of my parent’s job, I had to move to Portugal when I was five and eventually to Macau when I was nine. So, from 9 to 15 years old, I have always been very passionate about football while living in Macau. Then, it was at that 15-year-old that I decided to return to Portugal alone, attempting to chase my dream of becoming a professional footballer. Well, unfortunately, the football dream didn’t work out. Eventually, I returned to Macau. Because of my Macau residency and also my experiences of playing overseas, I was called up to the Macau National Team.
Football Dream In Portugal
Since I was young, I have always told my parents I wanted to be a professional footballer. I recall having many conversations with my parents on this topic, and it came a day when my football coach told me if I wanted to be a professional footballer, I had to go to Europe. Coincidentally, my parents had a friend who knew someone in the football clubs in Portugal. Then, when I was 15 years old, I packed my bag and travelled to Portugal alone to chase a football dream.
Sadly, it didn’t work out, but I have no idea why, too. I had already reached the top I could in Portugal, but things didn’t work out the way I would have imagined it to be. I wouldn’t look back to say I did not play for Sporting or Real Madrid, but you see, there are millions and millions of footballers in the world, and not everyone will be playing at the highest level. So, I always remind myself not to give up. Even if I do not reach the top, it doesn’t mean I have to stop playing football, right?
Looking back, I feel happy because I have achieved many things I would have never imagined I would, like playing in the World Cup Qualifiers, AFC Cup and more. One of the best things I did while pursuing my football dream in Portugal was to continue my university education. So, at the end of my sixth year of playing in the Portuguese third division and regional League, my wife and I returned to Macau for a fresh start. Leaving Portugal was a challenging decision to make if you harboured a huge football dream. I am glad that I always have the support of my family, especially my parents and my wife.
Challenges in Portugal
So, as a young 20-year-old, I was playing my second season in the senior team. Just a few games into the first new season, the club told me I was not good enough, and I was released just like that. If I may add, another club released me before this new club too. Then, I started to doubt myself, wondering if I was good enough.
At that kind of age, I wasn’t going for the money. Specifically, that is a USD50-a-month allowance from the club. It was the opportunity that I was going after. So, I wasn’t getting any allowance at one point as I wasn’t playing. Ultimately, I was only motivated to play again once a friend called and invited me to join him at the regional League. It was like a team formed up of all former players. Since I was club-less, and they paid much more than what I was getting from my previous club, I joined them. With the new team, I trained every Friday, and match day will be Sunday. This went on for two years, and in the third year, I decided to stop playing. That was also the time my wife decided to move back to Macau. And that decision was rejuvenating for me. If she hadn’t said that, I probably stopped football completely when I was 21 or 22. The return to Macau gave me a new start and a new opportunity.
New Opportunity Back In Macau
So when I moved back to Macau, one of the first few people I got in touch with was my youth football coach. With his recommendation, I was able to train with Ka-i FC and eventually signed for them. That was my first club in Macau. I played for Ka-I for three years, and we were the champions for two years. Although we did not win the title in my last year (2013), I won the Top Scorer Award and the Best Local Player Award! That particular year was terrific and fun. After that, I moved on to Benfica FC, where I would go on to represent the club for the next six years.
MUST-CPK FC AT AFC Cup
So we completed in the highly anticipated AFC Cup tournament last year, where we faced some of the toughest opponents in Asia. We lost five games and won only once. Even though it was not my first time playing in the AFC Cup, it was MUST-CPK FC’s debut outing at the AFC level. Hence, it wasn’t a bad performance.
Having said that, it wasn’t the best tournament because I could not play the full games in the first few matches due to work. There were days when I only joined the team on the match day when I returned from my business trips. For example, due to work, I didn’t make the trip to Mongolia to play FC Ulaanbaatar with the team. So that’s something that I will need to juggle, especially since I have my work commitments and the football team’s. Then again, towards the end of our AFC Cup campaign, I managed to score six goals in the last two matches and that kind of “compensated” me for the limited playing time I had with the team in that campaign. It was a great feeling to be able to score goals, but as a team, we only won one game, which we will have to work on as we move forward.
Champion In Macau League
Now that we have the right experience, we plan to start preparing ourselves early for the AFC Cup, which we may not have done appropriately last year. It may not be clear if we will be going to the group stage, or we might need to play in some playoff, as there are some new changes in the tournament format. Regardless, we have factored in the AFC Cup in our season-long preparation, and the team is looking forward to the challenge.
Regarding the Macau League, we are certainly one of the favourites. We have been dominating the League for the past 3-4 years. Our expectation or target doesn’t change; we are going all out to win. But this year, there have been many changes to the team. We used to have a massive squad of 26 players registered for last season, and this year we have only got 19.
On top of that, we have a new coach this season, too. Anyway, this season will be fun and competitive. We might be the defending champion, but we will not take our foot off the pedal just yet. We need to do what we need to do.
Macau National Team
I started representing Macau U-17 when I was about 13 or 14. Back then, I was still living in Macau. Then, the first team call-up came in 2011 when I just returned from Portugal. I can’t exactly recall how the call-up happened, but the feeling was incredible. I was the only “non-Chinese”in the National Team! So yeah, it’s strange. When I was playing for the National Team, players from the other teams looked at me, and their faces showed me like, hey, who’s this bearded European-looking guy? Where else the others all Chinese! Haha. But joke aside, I am a local. Macau is my home where I grew up. It’s a fantastic feeling to be able to represent Macau at the highest level.
So, that first call-up to the Macau National Team was the 67th Interport Cup, where we played against Hong Kong in 2011. I came on as a substitute and scored the only goal in that match to lead the team to the Cup triumph. Honestly, that was a great deal, and it really gave me a huge motivation to continue to better myself. In the subsequent years, I continued to be part of the Macau National Team, and I went on to play in the World Cup Qualifiers and more.
I still remember this match against Vietnam in the World Cup Qualifiers when they hosted us at Thong Nhat, Ho Chi Minh City, in 2011. It was my first time playing in a packed Stadium with 20,000 fans or more. The Vietnamese destroyed us. The final score was 6-0. And although it was a huge defeat, I had learned so much from the game. At that very moment, I was looking back. I was almost going to stop playing football in Portugal, and now I am playing in front of twenty thousand spectators in the World Cup Qualifiers! There are millions and millions of footballers all over the world chasing their football dreams. And here I am, one of the luckiest ones, getting a restart in Macau and representing my country, playing in the biggest football tournament in the world. That feeling is truly unique.
Photo Courtesy of Nicholas Torrao/ First Photo: Jose Giga
Most Memorable Macau National Team’s Match
It is not just about which game in specific; it is the AFC Solidarity Cup 2016, which is my most memorable one. It was held in Kuching, Sarawak (Malaysia), and we played against teams like Nepal, Mongolia, Laos, and Sri Lanka. All the teams were equally matched; hence, it was a perfect tournament for us.
Our first match was against Mongolia, we won 2-1 and I scored both goals. In the second match, we won Laos 4-1, and I scored a brace again. I would miss the third group match due to my yellow card accumulation, but we already secured our Semi-final spot against Brunei, where we beat them on penalty to progress to the Final. Unfortunately, we still went down 1-0 to Nepal in the Final. I was also the tournament’s joint-top scorer but lost out narrowly to the eventual Brunei player, as he had an assist over me.
So, it was not about how many goals I scored, but our outstanding performance in that tournament garnered unexpected attention and support from everyone back home in Macau. Because nobody believes in us, right? Even when we play international friendlies, we rarely win. At most, we get a draw, but we rarely win. So when we started winning in the AFC Solidarity Cup, people began talking about us. People in Macau, newspapers and various media started to take notice and support us. I also recalled that our Macau Sports Bureau was also at the ferry terminal to welcome us back from the tournament.
Despite the defeat in the AFC Solidarity Cup Final, everyone on the National Team felt motivated and proud. We have demonstrated that we can achieve something in Asian football so long as we set realistic goals. For Macau football, I cannot say we want to go to the World Cup now – it’s impossible. We could set out to win our first playoff in the World Cup Qualifiers or the next AFC Solidarity Cup, which we will be invited to as the first step. That should be our goal. Looking back, that was my best experience with the National Team because we were winning. Everyone was so happy to represent the National Team.
International Friendly Against Singapore
I vividly remember that match in 2014, as it was one of my best games for Macau. In that match, we drew 2-2 with Singapore; I assisted one and scored the other one! If we look back at our Macau football history, particularly our ranking, that result against Singapore was probably one of our best during that 10-15 years. Singapore is a good team. Ten years ago, Singapore was considered one of the better teams we had ever played during that period. Before the game, we were like, “Oh, against Singapore, not going to be easy for us, okay, let’s try our best!”. And we did give ourselves a decent account that evening.
And honestly, the ground that we hosted Singapore helped, too. Instead of the usual main Stadium, we played in the secondary one in Taipa. Overall, it was a slightly smaller pitch. To us, that was an advantage, as we just needed to get the ball into Singapore’s half, and we would do our best to put the ball in. However, that could be a massive disadvantage for Singapore, as they were probably used to spreading the ball wide, and it restricted their usual play.
Photo Courtesy of Nicholas Torrao
Which Footballers Do You Look Up To?
I remember having this A.S. Roma jersey with Totti growing up, though! Anyway, although I grew up in Macau, I started only to love football when I was in Portugal. As you know, Portugal has a tremendous football culture, so naturally, one of the first few football idols I came to know and looked up to was former Brazil striker Mario Jardel, who used to play for Porto, Sporting Lisbon & Galatasaray. He was the top scorer in Europe three years in a row! And that’s how amazing Jardel was during his prime. Every touch he had would be a goal. Then, of course, in Portugal, I looked up to Legend Figo for sure. You know, he was the best Portuguese player in the world.
There’s another great player whom I looked up to as well: AC Milan’s Inzaghi. Sometimes, I would still go onto YouTube to watch his videos because we were playing in very similar positions. And you know, he was always so well positioned in the box that he would put in all the second ball. That’s my type of game, too. And also, I used to have long hair like Ronaldinho and would like to have the same boots as him. And there was also Zinadine Zidane. I wasn’t a Zidane fan. I only started to watch his videos after he had retired. I wondered, “How could I miss out on him all this while?”
Advice For Younger Players
Never give up. Regardless of whether you are at the lowest or the highest level, you should never give up.
I think being at the lowest level is easier because, from there, you can only grow and get better. But the most important thing is never to give up. You just have to keep working, keep working, and keep working. When I was 15 years old, alone in Portugal, I told my parents that I didn’t want all these (football) anymore, but my parents encouraged and supported me to continue instead. Thinking back, I am grateful for that; if not, I won’t be where I am today.
So, here’s some advice for the parents: sometimes, we have to let the kids go through failure or simply say, let them “suffer” a bit. They need to fail and learn how to get up by themselves again. Parents cannot always be there to help them. I am guilty of that (my son) too, but yes, I am learning, and I want my son to know it’s easy to give up for sure, but that will not work out for football, and definitely not the way in life, too.
