Childhood friend Bruno Barbosa dos Santos would play football against Firmino on his PlayStation 2. Speak to anybody who knows Firmino or his parents Mariana Cicera and Jose Cordeiro and the sentiments are always the same. The small pitch sits at the entrance to the Escola Estadual Professor Tarcisio de Jesus, the school Firmino first attended aged seven. Guilherme Farias coached Firmino for two years at CRB and said he always played cleanly, "unlike Pepe who was always very aggressive". Here, be it among the giant palms and high-rise hotels or the pollution and plastic waste, Firmino remains their humble, unheralded hero.

Source: BBC March 17, 2020 07:52 UTC