During training sessions, Ruben Amorim had a peculiar way of showing encouragement.
The young Portugal player was often told by Amorim to work harder than his teammates. He had to pay for his manager to sign.
He was making fun of himself.
Frederico Varandas made a bold prediction as he denied any concern about the finances of the deal, having taken the unprecedented gamble of paying a fee of 10m euros for a coach with no top-flight experience.
I have no doubt that the man will pay for the person. He told Canal 11 that he could write it down.
It was a responsibility for a boy who had only played in lower levels and was yet to make his senior debut for the Lisbon team.
Varandas was absolutely correct.
The start of an upward trajectory that would prompt Wolves to break their transfer record to sign the 23-year-old for £38m this summer happened a month later.
He went from a late bloomer to one of the best in the world in just two years, and will be a part of Portugal's World Cup squad this year.
A lot of people questioned why we were investing in a kid with no previous job experience. "We knew those people were wrong, but we didn't know it at the time."
He ran. He became our under-23 side's best player because he was playing so well.
He arrived at the club and I told him to be patient. He said he had all the patience in the world. It was hard for me to get here.
Last week, Wolves came knocking. He's expected to start for the first time in the league this weekend.
For a while, his mother worried that he could have lost his way because he didn't have it easy.
He said his mom doesn't know how he became a drug dealer. I was a nomad in Brazil, moving house 10 times and living in a slum. When I arrived in Portugal, I was 13 years old.
His family decided to move from the seaside town of Ericeira to Ericeirense, where he began his career. He spent all of his formative years with them and was unable to find a new home.
It's not that he didn't try, he was invited to trials by a number of cities.
They said that he probably wasn't what they were looking for after training with them. They preferred faster and more vertical players. They promised to keep him on the radar because he was very skinny, says Ruben Franco, a former coach who accompanied him.
He had the opportunity to take pictures with some of his friends. They would win the premier league that year.
Under pressure to make ends meet, Nunes found a job at a local bakery.
He wondered if he had the talent to make it as a pro. He needed more money to help his family after he stopped playing football.
He once said that he wanted to live from football. I will be fulfilled if I accomplish that. He might be now.
It took more time than it usually does for an elite footballer, but after leaving Ericeirense for Estoril in the middle of last year, he finally got to where he wanted to be.
He made up for lost time at Alvalade.
In the title-winning campaign of 2020-21, the former bakery boy made a regular impact off the bench.
He didn't look back after breaking into the XI after Joao Mario left. He dragged Brazil and Portugal into a fight over his international future.
The Portuguese won it and secured a footballer who is still as hard-working and competitive as he was when he was in Ericeira.
He has seen a lot of things in his life and will bring that to the area.
The beauty of football is that someone with a youth career can go as far as they want. He is the one representing it.
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