ESPN Brasil today features an interview with 25-year-old striker Rafael Assis, who currently plays for third division side Náutico.
Despite being still young, the player has moved through several clubs, including French side Istres, where he played with someone who’s now a Liverpool star.
Rafael Assis was a teammate of Naby Keita, who spent a couple of years at the club. With the interview being made ahead of Reds’ Champions League match against Bayern Munich, the Brazilian talked a little about the friendship he’s had with the Liverpool player.
“I remember Keita very well… Keita, no. We used to call him Naby,” Rafael Assis told ESPN Brasil.
“I remember a nice episode of him, more of a life story. He went to the club to do tests, he didn’t come as a signing. So he lived with our kitman at the time, in a small room. He didn’t have any difficulties, but he did not have much, you know?”
“Immediately we told him we would help him, we would chip in for him to buy whatever he wanted with us. This story is something I always remember when I am at home or with my friends. That is why I say that all the success that he has now is the result of a lot of work, and he deserves a lot of it, because he is very humble, a very good guy.
“Every foreigner likes Brazilians very much, we come abroad and are very well received, well treated. They have a very great affection for us, with Naby it was the same thing, we didn’t understand much what he said (laughs), but we were always together, had lunch together, had dinner together.
“It was a very nice friendship that we had, he was also a very humble guy, very simple, and that helped our relationship. We lost some contact in the last few years, but I’m glad I made friends with a guy like him.”
Keita left Istres to join RB Salzburg in 2014 for only €1.4m. Two years later, he moved to RB Leipzig in a €30m move. And finally last summer, his price was doubled as Liverpool paid €60m to take him from the German side.
