Meet the planet’s HOTTEST teenager
Brazilian Endrick has 170 goals in 172 games, is being chased by Europe’s biggest clubs ...and only turns 16 today!
TODAY is the big one for Endrick — world football’s most sought-after teenager. He turns 16, a milestone in any young man’s life but even more so for a player hailed as a generational talent in Brazil.
Because today he can legally sign a professional playing contract with Palmeiras — the club that gave him and his povertystricken family the opportunity of a better life.
He will sign the deal in full view of Brazil’s assembled media, whose infatuation with the kid they view as the next Neymar is already at stratospheric levels.
Having scored a reported 170 goals in 172 games, you get the hysteria. He has not played a single minute of senior football yet but there are some in Brazil who want him named in Tite’s squad for the World Cup.
That is, of course, unlikely but it provides a flavour of how highly he is regarded.
As the big day approaches, Endrick is speaking to Sportsmail from his home in Sao Paulo for his first interview with a UK newspaper.
Ordinarily, there would not be this level of interest in a prospect signing his first pro deal. But this is not an ordinary kid.
Name a club and they want to sign Endrick. Real Madrid? Yes. Barcelona. Yes. Paris Saint-Germain. Yes. Manchester United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool. We could go on.
Unfortunately for Palmeiras, they will have a limited window to enjoy his talents. He will almost certainly sign for one of Europe’s elite before the age of 19.
Indeed, he has already featured on the front page of renowned Spanish newspaper Marca three times, while Gary Lineker branded Endrick a ‘special talent’ as he posted a video of the 5ft 6in forward scoring a bicycle kick from the edge of the area. ‘How do I cope with the hype? I try to remember I’m young,’ explains Endrick. ‘I’m still a child and it’s only a game. I don’t want to take it overly seriously. ‘I want to be serious about my career but during the game, I want to have as much fun as possible.’
Hopefully he never loses that innocence, though Endrick has already experienced the pressures that come with success.
He was named Player of the Tournament at this year’s Copinha — Brazil’s most prestigious youth competition.
The fact that he was aged just 15 playing in an Under-21 tournament brought his performances into sharper focus — and sent the hype into overdrive.
‘The Copinha was the moment I realised I’m doing things more advanced than expected,’ he adds. ‘Though I’m used to playing with older kids, I’m not a person to believe I’m special.
‘But because of this tournament, I saw no other player had done this before at my age. That’s when it came together in my mind.’
Outperforming those around him is not new to Endrick. As a schoolboy, games in his own age group became so easy that he banned himself from using his dominant left foot.
But Endrick’s rise to fame is a far cry from what was the toughest of upbringings. Raised in poverty in Brazil’s capital city Brasilia, dad Douglas and mother Cinitia were constants but the lack of a steady income meant Endrick often went hungry.
‘I could not attend some training sessions because we did not have enough for the bus fare,’ recalls Endrick. ‘That was an issue, knowing I was missing sessions but there was no solution — we didn’t have the money.
‘It’s been a long and very difficult journey and I know only a minority of players who start the journey I am on complete it.’
As is often the case in Brazil, Endrick saw football as his family’s route out of hardship. He was making a name for himself locally — but even then the cost of playing was proving a strain.
‘In Brasilia there are no big clubs, just football schools with affiliations to clubs,’ he says. ‘You can pay to attend the schools but we didn’t have the money, so I had to go on trial.’
Eventually, Endrick, at the age of 11, was offered a six-month trial with Palmeiras — a club 600 miles away from home. At first, father Douglas insisted the family would not uproot to Sao Paulo to effectively gamble on his son’s success. But a resolution, that saw Douglas become Palmeiras’ first-team janitor, was found for Endrick to join the club’s academy.
Former Bayern Munich midfielder Ze Roberto, who was part of the Palmeiras squad while Douglas was janitor, now acts as a mentor to Endrick as he transitions into senior football.
But the real driving force behind Endrick’s rise to stardom is Endrick himself — the boy from Brasilia with the world at his feet.
‘I know I’m not there yet, I know I have a lot of work to do,’ he says. ‘I have to remember the difficulties I’ve gone through — it gives me strength to carry on.’