Lost in the competitive cycle of youth football, a new opportunity for footballers is emerging at the University of Derby.
From Lisbon to Derby. This is the ProChance development system aimed at helping players return to the professional game.
One simple message on Instagram may well have provided Dionisio Barai Evora a restored chance to become a pro, just in a completely different country.
Since committing to the ProChance scheme, he has left his family and friends behind with one aim. The aim to live the dream of every football fan. The aim ‘to make it’.
Evora’s childhood encapsulated everything from street football to local “rap tuga” and the small matter of playing in the Sporting Lisbon academy. Now the 20-year-old is dreaming of a return to the shores of what he calls home.
“Playing for Sporting was good; it was very good. I used to see the first team a lot. I was at Sporting Lisbon since I was a kid and stayed for five years,” Evora says.
After a spell that ended partly due to behavioural issues, the attacking midfielder had stints at Atlético Cacém, 1º Dezembro, and Sintrense before moving to England.
Those behavioural issues, which he did not want to expand on, may explain his sheer eagerness and sole purpose to turn wrongs into rights in Derby, a new city, a fresh start.
“I’m more by myself. I’m a person who doesn’t like talking to many people. I love my own company,” the 20-year-old says.
“I never go out in Derby. I come here to go to university, train, the gym, and then home that’s what I do.”
Given his seeming stability at home, adapting to a new country would prove difficult for any human being, right?
Evora agrees. “The language was tough,” he admits. “I always knew English but I didn’t know how to speak it. I stayed at my cousin’s house, and they were teaching me English.
“I miss [Portugal], but coming here is good.”
From Portugal and all points in between, Prochance is attracting great numbers of men and women to join their development system.
Using the initiative “rethink possible”, students enrol on a full-time Foundation degree programme to balance a first-class education with a pathway back to the elite level through the professional club’s programme.
Adnane Kinani is the president of football at the University of Derby. “It’s a great idea,” he says. “It is full-time training, it’s a professional sort of set-up, as professional as it can be.
“The training’s very good. We get media training; we’ve got access to sort of everything [so] we’re in a privileged position. You have to buy into it I think; if you don’t go 100% into it, then well … you get out what you put into it.”
The team participates in the weekly British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) system alongside opportunities to play friendlies against professional clubs from around the country, maybe a taste of what’s to come.
“We’ve played Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan in the summer, and then Newtown in Wales,” says Kinani.
Following in the footsteps of Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, and Co, Evora has had to adapt on the pitch as well as, amongst other things, the obvious weather change.
“It’s a new environment for me to be honest, because when I was playing last year, it was technical and physical, but here it is just physical,” says the midfielder. “Football is a lot different here than in Portugal.
“The standards are very high at ProChance. It is a high intensity, there is a lot of competition as well [so] you have got to be on point. I feel like the competition is getting the best out of me: I don’t want to be left behind, I want to improve.
“I feel way better on the ball now. They always tell us to keep our heads up and the first touch needs to be on point. That’s one thing I’m willing to improve because I had it before, but then I stopped playing football.”
The youngster has only been involved in two games so far after joining in the summer but already has a sort of radiating confidence within himself and for his teammates.
“We’re definitely going to win the game on Wednesday,” he says.
That self-belief will be crucial in providing that Portuguese flavour to the team regularly.
As of now, a return to Sporting Lisbon may be far down the line, but with the right attitude and support networks, anything could be possible for Dionisio Barai Evora. “I want to improve and get to the professional level,” he says with a steely determination.
Remember the name.
