Nani: The transfer to United was my destiny

Nani also recalls watching the closing stages of the dramatic 1999 Champions League final with a pal, and knowing United were his team.

“The game when Manchester United won 2-1 against Bayern Munich, in the final, I remember I had a situation with another friend,” he said. “I think he lives in England now. The game was on and we ran to one café to get to watch the last minutes. I remember I said to him, ‘That’s my team. I will be in that team. That’s my team’. I remember that and, sometimes, things come out of my mouth and I don’t have an idea what I’m saying.

“Probably saying it, you just feel it. Come on, you’ve got to have a reason but there are so many things that happened in the past that now make sense.”

Hence, when Sir Alex Ferguson came calling in 2007, he knew it was the right move for him.

“At that time, I was lucky because I was working with the strongest agents in the world and then we had a connection with a lot of important persons,” he explained. “People who were important in Manchester because, at that time, Ronaldo was playing there and had a similar story, you know, playing for Sporting and then Ferguson went to bring him to United. Carlos Queiroz was there as well, he’s Portuguese, so it can help a little bit and I was very excited.

“My agent asked me as there were so many teams to choose from – Chelsea, Arsenal, teams in Italy like Juventus and Inter [Milan]. Bayern [Munich] and [Real] Madrid – I don’t know if they were true but it was in the news. I chose Manchester because of the reasons they gave me at that time and everything [about how] the past was involved with me. It gave me the reasons to go there, all my story and beyond that, told me to go to Manchester. It was a club where I have a story in the past before I moved to Manchester, when I was a kid, so it was good.”