[ad_1]
Soccer coach Miguel Matos was confined to Wuhan at the end of January, when the new coronavirus spread through the Chinese city, and he contracted it in Portugal in September, after changing Hubei Chufeng Heli for Gil Vicente.
After returning to Portuguese soil in early February, on a repatriation flight coordinated by the European authorities, the goalkeeping coach was due to return to China at the end of July, but the invitation made him stay in Portugal, where he would remain. infected, due to the outbreak that, in September, affected 15 people from the Portuguese Football League club, including players, coaches and elements of the football structure.
“There is a striking detail, which, at that time, was not a joke: I escaped from the Wuhan virus and was one of the first in Gil Vicente to contract it. I had no symptoms. Positive detected [no teste]. We soon had to go home. It was at that moment that an outbreak appeared. At the end of the 10 days, I retested and it was negative.“he reminds Lusa.
For Miguel Matos, the year that is ending is marked by the change of club, more thinking about the family and professional progression than in “economic terms”, closures and changes in social routines.
“This really changed the lives of all of us and mine completely. When I went on vacation, I would join my brothers and a group of friends several times, to make me miss them. From February until now, I have joined very few Times with them. It’s strange. The social part has changed completely, “he analyzes.
Since the covid-19 pandemic emerged in Portugal in March, the guardian responsible for the goalkeepers has limited outdoor practices, doing only “exercise and walking in hours with few people on the street.”
The 44-year-old technician, born in Guimarães, also recalls that, at the time of repatriation, he “did not imagine” living a pandemic such as that caused by the new coronavirus, which infected more than 82 million people and caused the death of more than 1.8 million, having also said that China was more “strict” than Portugal in the fight against the pandemic.
When he was isolated in Wuhan between January 22 and February 1, together with Hubei Chufeng Heli’s coach, Luiz Felipe, and physical trainer, Luís Estanislau, the coach could still go to the supermarket, but, after returning To Portugal, the Chinese government prevented people from leaving the city of about 11 million people by creating a pool of volunteers to deliver food.
“The government took the food home. There was no choice. They took the vegetables, the pasta and everyone was left with the same. Here, we could take a five to ten minute walk for physical activity while we were confined. There in China there“, he clarifies.
This rule even led one of the goalkeepers of the Hubei Chufeng Heli, from the Chinese third step, to sign up for the volunteer pool to “do the training” and “stay in shape”, while the other athletes were limited to doing the exercises. recommended through the Zoom platform, in their homes, says Miguel Matos.
Convinced that it is important to “have football” at a time when people are more at home, the coach assures that he is “very happy” in Gil Vicente, but does not rule out, in the future, returning to China, a country where that “he really liked” working “.
“Most of the people in Portugal have no idea what China is. It’s a country from the other world“reiterates the coach, who has also played for the Braga Football Association, Desportivo das Aves, Santa Clara and Al-Nahda, a club from Oman, in the Middle East.
