LONDON: There is nothing atypical about a father going to watch his son play football, even when it is thousands of kilometers from home. What is a little more unusual, however, is when the team is Khor Fakkan and the father is one of the greatest Brazilian players of all time.
In early January, the 7,500-capacity Saqr bin Mohammad Al-Qassimi Stadium hosted Bebeto, whose glittering 20-year career included star turns on the pitches of iconic grounds such as the Maracana, Camp Nou and the Bernabeu.
The legendary Brazilian striker was in town to watch his son Mattheus Oliviera, who put in his best display yet for Khor Fakkan — setting up two goals in a 5-2 victory over Baniyas.
Mattheus, in his first season in the UAE Pro League, has since joined Al-Nasr — making a switch this week that sees him trade a relegation battle for a fight for third place and a spot in the AFC Champions League 2 group stage.
The winger ended nearly a decade-long spell in Portuguese football to move to the UAE last summer.
“It is completely new for me but I’m liking the football here so far,” Mattheus told Arab News in an exclusive interview. “It’s difficult with the heat but I am enjoying how different it is and the people are very warm here in the UAE.”
Mattheus’ decision to swap Portugal for the Gulf came after he sought advice from his brother-in-law Carlos Eduardo.
The midfielder was an influential player for Al-Hilal, Shabab Al-Ahli and Al-Ahli Jeddah before returning to Brazil, where he won a historic Copa Libertadores title with Botafogo last November.
“I spoke with him a lot when I was in Brazil last summer,” Mattheus revealed. “I wanted to know about the country, the league and of course the culture.
“He said a lot of good things to me so it helped me decide to sign the contract. I spoke with my family too and we agreed it was time for a new project in our lives.”
Of course, Mattheus also consulted his father. The 30-year-old midfielder has followed in the footsteps of many Brazilian players who have made the UAE Pro League their home — though Bebeto is not one of them.
Bebeto — whose 35 goals for the Brazil national team are only surpassed by Zico, Romario, Ronaldo, Pele and Neymar — did play in the Gulf, but it was for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad. The Jeddah giants were the final club of his illustrious career.
“We lived in Saudi for a few months. I was probably about 8 years old,” Mattheus recalled.
“I can really remember him playing at Al-Ittihad, it was the last six months of his career. It’s funny now that I’m back here in the region.”
It is not the first time that Mattheus’ career path has crossed his father’s. In Brazil, the attacking midfielder came through the youth system at Flamengo, where Bebeto scored most of his goals in domestic football.
It was here that Mattheus was first alerted to the ability of another, younger player in Flamengo’s academy.
“The first time I saw Vinicius Jr. he was around 9 years old; by the time he was 12, you already knew that he was a special player,” Mattheus said.
“He was very fast and very confident. He can lose the ball 20 times in a game but he will try 50 more times to make things happen and one he’s going to score for sure.
“I’m very happy for him because he’s my friend. I know him and I know his family. We had a good relationship and he’s a very humble guy. He is playing for Real Madrid in the top of the world but is the same guy he was as a kid.
“What he did last year and he continued to do this year is completely amazing and it has been great to see because I know he deserves this.”
Vinicius Jr. was snapped up by Real Madrid at the age of 18 but for Mattheus, the move to Europe came at a slightly later age.
After finding the label of “Bebeto’s son” tough to deal with at Flamengo, a 21-year-old Mattheus — by that time a Brazil under-20 international —initially went on loan to Portuguese side Estoril and later moved to Sporting in 2021.
“In Brazil it was very difficult to be his son because he’s a legend of the game there,” Mattheus said.
“They were comparing me the whole time and you hear people saying ‘you are only here at Flamengo and you are only going to the national team because you are Bebeto’s son.’
“It was the main reason I wanted to go to Europe because I didn’t want those comparisons; I think the whole experience made me grow up faster.
“But to me it will always be a blessing to have Bebeto as my father. I’ve had my own personal coach, a legend of the game, teaching me the right things to do on the pitch.”
It was on the pitch that Bebeto created one of football’s most iconic moments during the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the US.
After scoring Brazil’s second goal against Netherlands in the quarterfinal, Bebeto delighted the crowd at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl with a ‘baby rocking’ celebration — along with teammates Romario and Mazinho.
It was an instinctive, emotional tribute to Mattheus, who had been born two days earlier.
“It’s completely crazy because I travel a lot with my family and everywhere we go, people look at me and say to him, ‘this is the kid you did the celebration for?’ It was 30 years ago and people are still doing it to him now.
“To him, the celebration was a natural thing to do because when my brother and my sister were born, he was there to get them in his arms. When he was playing in the World Cup, he wasn’t there with my mother, so he did this. I love that he did it.”
Mattheus still has the photo of the celebration hanging above his bed at his family home in Brazil, but the midfielder has now forged his own path in football.
At Sporting, he counted Rafael Leao and Bruno Fernandes as friends and teammates, and played under current Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim.
In the UAE he emerged as a key creative force for Khor Fakkan, earning the move to Al-Nasr for the rest of the 2024-25 season. Still, Mattheus knows that whatever his circumstances and wherever in the world he plays, his father will always be on hand to support him.
“After the game (against Baniyas in January), we went back to my house and he’s still giving me advice. I think it’s the most beautiful thing to play a game of football and have him talk to me about it afterwards.
“My dad was a football player; he made history in football. I think it was in my blood to play this game and it is something special. It is a gift.”
