Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes has given a fantastic interview to ESPN Brasil this week. Most of the chat is on the ‘Correspondentes Premier’ podcast, but some quotes ended up making it to the TV channel as well.
Speaking to João Castelo Branco and Renato Senise, the 38-year-old has once again talked about the probability of retiring at the end of the season.
“The players themselves here are campaigning so I can continue. But in my head now, there’s a 99% chance I’ll stop in the middle of the year now,” Gomes told ESPN.
Gomes hasn’t been playing in the Premier League, but has featured in all Watford’s cup games so far. In the FA Cup, the Hornets are now facing Wolves in the semifinals, and he says he knew they would get far in the competition.
“Before the competition started, it was in my heart that we would go very far. And I used to say it to the players. It’s a great opportunity for us to get a title. And winning a title is something out of the ordinary, you know? The feeling of lifting a trophy is something out of the ordinary. And I miss it.”
Reporter João Castelo Branco asked Gomes what he considers to be the peak of his career, and his response turned out to be a great story.
“To have arrived where I arrived. Because I put a dream in my heart. I never imagined being a football player until I was 14 years old.
“Until one day we were struggling in the countryside of Minas Gerais, my mother was heating water on a wood burning stove for us to shower. And man, seeing my mother sad, I asked her: ‘Mother, why are you sad?’ ‘Oh my son, I wanted to give you a bathroom, some hot water in the house, I wish we had light in the house.’
“At that moment I said ‘I’m going to be a football player and give you a house’. I put it in my heart. Because I thought it was the shortest way for me to get enough money to buy this house for my mother. I just wanted a house for my mother. I never dreamed of being a footballer to be famous or anything. I just wanted a house for my mother.”
If Heurelho Gomes does retire, Watford, and football generally, will be poorer without him.
