MANY EYEBROWS WERE raised when a little-known Portuguese player called Tiago Manuel Dias Correia was signed by Manchester United in 2010 for a fee of £7.4m.
Unveiled alongside Javier Hernandez and Chris Smalling, the youngster seemed a little overawed by it all, such had been his rapid ascent to the top.
With his only competitive games having been in the Portuguese third division, United swooped just weeks after he had been transferred to top-flight side Vitoria de Guimaraes.
Sir Alex Ferguson revealed he had never seen Bebe play but that his former assistant Carlos Queiroz had recommended him, along with United’s Portuguese scouts.
In total, he stayed for four years but never started a Premier League game. He did manage two goals in his debut campaign – against Wolves and Bursaspor.
His last competitive appearance came in a FA Cup win over Crawley Town in February 2011 with a litany of temporary spells at various clubs.
Since the summer of 2014, Bebe has been at Benfica but, once again, he’s found himself to be a bit of a wandering labourer, bouncing from loan to loan.
But, at last, he seems to have found some consistency.
Currently at La Liga side Ray Vallecano, he’s managed plenty of first-team action though the team continues to battle against the drop.
He’s appeared in 25 of the team’s 28 top-flight games, starting 20 of them.
They suffered a 2-1 loss to Espanyol on Monday but Bebe conjured his third of the season – an absolute screamer.
Earlier in the season, he scored another belter against Sevilla. Maybe we misunderstood him all this time…
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