Portuguese newspaper A Bola today shares an interview with Hibernian winger Jair Tavares.
The 23-year-old ended up having a quite interesting conversation, talking both about his time in Scottish football and his recent struggles far away from home.
First explaining his time in Scotland, Tavares highlighted how hard the Premiership is. And talking about Hibs, he claimed that his club are just one step from the likes of Celtic and Rangers.
“Scottish football is nothing like what people on the outside think. They don’t realise how difficult it is to play here. It’s not easy at all. It’s totally different to Portuguese football. In our country you’ll find players with much more quality than here, and it’s more beautiful football to watch, there’s more spectacle, but here you have a non-stop type of game. After 20 minutes you’re almost out of oxygen. It’s a much more physical, uglier game, but in terms of intensity it’s a few steps above Portuguese football,” Jair Tavares told A Bola.
“I didn’t know the club at all until the offer came and I came here. But it’s an excellent club for developing a player. In Scotland, it’s just behind Rangers and Celtic, on a par with Hearts and Aberdeen. Hibernian offers you the best conditions, with a beautiful stadium, too, and fans who are crazy about the club. Living in Edinburgh has been good, honestly.”
“Completely different from my beloved Lisbon, which I only realised was the best city in the world after I left (laughs). The weather and the food are the only things that depress me here, but otherwise it’s a very beautiful city with a high quality of life.”
The Portuguese media knows that Tavares struggled to adapt to Scotland, after his arrival at Hibernian, as he once claimed he didn’t even want to train at times, but he claims to have recovered from that situation.
“Yes, it was a very difficult season, especially mentally. I stopped seeing happiness in everything, and the hardest part was having to go to training and smile as if everything was going perfectly, or as if I was going to play at the weekend, even though I knew with almost 100 per cent certainty that I wasn’t going to be called up. “
“Fortunately things have changed, but the most important thing was to be prepared for the eventual change, because I never stopped training for myself, I did extra after extra, on my own, after training, on my days off… I would train on my own because I never stopped believing either, because I always knew – and know – about my qualities. But right now the most important thing is that I feel that joy again, that love for the game.”
“I coped on my own, with the help of my parents, of course. More my father, because he’s the one who takes care of me in the world of football. But I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to share things when things are bad, so I kept everything to myself.”
Jair Tavares spent many years at Benfica’s academy, despite not having played for their first team.
It was in the summer of 2022 that Hibs signed him. Since then, he’s had two goals and one assist in 33 appearances for the Scottish side.
With him still showing affection for the Eagles, he has a couple of reasons to support his former club in the Europa League clash against Rangers this week.
