Cunha, a math prodigy who started in futsal

Before football, where Matheus Cunha (João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil, 1999) stood out was in the notes. In mathematics and physics. It was better for him. His father, Carmelo, as Luis Miguel Hinojal collects in a profile about the Brazilian soccer player in The countryHe was white and a chemistry professor. It does not have the typical history of favelas and streets behind. His family is middle class. He started in his city, the capital of the state of Paraíba, known as 'the city where the sun is born first', because it is the one that is located in the easternmost point of the American continent, in futsal, in the Cabo Branco club, in which his father also played. It soon stood out. Hence, a call, from the Barao training center, in Recife, 100 kilometers from home. Matthew, so they nickname him, he went there, to live with his grandmother.

“Matheus, a remarkable student“as it counts The country, “was there three years.” In that social and sports project that trained children by integrating futsal, soccer 7 and 11. At 14, another call. An entrepreneur saw him, took in his quality and proposed another transfer to his parents, now 3,000 kilometers to the south: Coritiba. His mother, Luziana, black skinned, asked him: “Do you really want to go?” “Remember to accept yourself and be strong. Some will say that you are black over there and they will call you Paraíba. And you are“, Hinojal told him, before specifying that Paraíba is” the term often used in a derogatory and racist way with which many Brazilians nickname black citizens from all over the Northeast. ” And Cunha was strong, yes, and she was chasing a dream. The one that the posters of Ronaldinho and Podolski told him in his room, and his idols.

Olympic champion in Tokyo

There he not only played, he also helped the club's students with more difficulties in those subjects in mathematics and physics. In 2017, in Dallas, a Sion scout spotted him and his call led him to Europe. “Although I was very young, when my representative told me that they wanted me, I didn't even think about it.“said the player. He also excelled in languages, he adapted quickly. 10 goals, Leipzig, one of his goals in the Bundesliga, against Leverkusen, was the goal of the year. In February 2020, it arrived at Hertha, for 18 million. Nine goals in 11 games, seven last season. Now comes the final leap, the one he does with his wife, Gabriela, a lawyer, and his son Levi, born in 2020. When he arrived in Zion, his parents traveled with him. At one point, in his debut with the Swiss club, Cunha approached his mother, and asked her. “How's it going?”. “It's fine, but you're failing a bit. Stop doing it,” snapped his mother, Luziana. Now, at Atlético, he has the opportunity to improve it, that debut. “It is a dream to be here,” he said on his social networks yesterday, as soon as his signing became official. In perfect Spanish, by the way. And a huge Profiden smile. Around the neck, already a medal. The gold that Brazil achieved in the Tokyo Games, against Spain, in which Luziana could already see how her son scored the winning goal.