“Saints sign Pele” – a dream headline that actually became true for Southampton fans in the summer of 2006. The most famous four-letter name in football had been adopted by a Portuguese-born footballer, who’d been nicknamed “Pele” at school. His request to have that name on his shirt proved, if nothing else, he had plenty of self-belief.

Unlike his famous namesake, however, this Pele was a central defender.

He found the game “faster and more physical” than previously experienced and also had to cope with being asked by George Burley to slot into the midfield at times, a position he had never played in before.

Nevertheless, he contributed a full part in the team’s reaching the play-offs. But then, after what he considered to be “a great first year in English football,” he was sold, although he “didn’t want to go,” to the beaten play-off finalists, West Brom.

He supposes that the cash-strapped club was “forced” to sell him – for £1m, thought to be the sum Southampton had paid to bring him from Belenenses. West Brom duly won promotion but then came straight back down again and Pele was released.

In 2008, he represented the Cape Verde Islands, his parents’ homeland, in the African Cup of Nations qualification rounds, but he has continued to play his football in England – albeit at clubs his namesake would never have heard of. In September 2013, while still playing for Havant & Waterlooville, he joined Matt Le Tissier’s coaching school. He was by then starting on the FA’s Level 3 coaching course, with his sights set on becoming an academy coach.