Sometimes it pays to have reach. For Richarlison de Andrade it helped to have 2.1million Instagram followers when his dog escaped. After an appeal on social media, two Everton fans found Acerola the Siberian husky worrying sheep near Crosby beach.
‘Loads of fans were out looking for him,’ smiles Richarlison. ‘It was a bit crazy.’ It also helps that the Everton centre forward is now Brazil’s No9. It meant that when he tackled politicians about the poor standard of healthcare and education in his home town of Nova Venecia last summer, they listened.
‘I was invited to speak at the state legislative assembly and I was able to tell them everything I feel,’ he explains. ‘I told them they have to dedicate more money to education and health. It’s really important.’
Everton forward Richarlison de Andrade spoke to Sportsmail at the Finch Farm training ground
Richarlison is only 22 but his life appears to be moving at lightning pace. It was only in 2018 that the young footballer met his countryman and idol Ronaldo at a sponsors’ event in London and was too overcome to even speak. When he moved to Watford from his home country that season, he was so unsure of himself that, for a while, he lived on burgers and cola.
Now he is a Brazil international with a Copa America winner’s medal at home and gets invited to talk to politicians. At Everton, he is considered so fundamental that coach Carlo Ancelotti wants to build a team around him.
‘Four years ago I was at home in Brazil with just dreams but look at me now,’ he says. ‘Things happen quickly, don’t they? I think I just have to make the most of it. I heard what the coach said and it makes me happy. It’s recognition for the work I have done here.
The 22-year-old says he has been inspired by the words of new Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti
‘I want to be a driving force. That’s the way I have always been: a battler. That’s what got me here in the first place.’
It has not been an easy season at Everton for anybody. Poor results saw coach Marco Silva, who signed Richarlison for Watford and then for Everton, sacked at the end of last year but that was not the low point. That came at Anfield last month when a strong Everton side lost to a youthful Liverpool team in the FA Cup. The fall-out, for a while, was quite toxic.
‘I couldn’t sleep after that game,’ nods Richarlison. ‘You could see fans cursing us on social media. I was cursing myself in the changing room and at home. I was really angry.
Richarlison says he couldn’t sleep after Everton’s FA Cup third round defeat at Liverpool
‘But I don’t think it’s right (to say the men lost to the boys). That Liverpool team had quality and the young lad (Curtis Jones) scored a wonder goal. It was a sad moment for us and we needed to learn from it. The important thing is that we have got over it and moved up the table.’
Under Ancelotti Everton have won four and drawn two of seven Premier League games. Going into Saturday’s home game with Crystal Palace they are ninth and Richarlison has played his part, dashing the length of the field to set up a winner for Theo Walcott at Watford last weekend.
Even so, it came as a surprise to be linked with a move to Barcelona on the last day of the transfer window. Everton insist there was no contact from the Catalan club.
‘I was at home playing video games online with my friends back home in Brazil when I suddenly started receiving all these messages from people asking if the Barcelona story was true,’ he says. ‘I didn’t know anything about it. My agent spoke to Everton and it was nothing, just rumours. It’s nice to have recognition but I want to continue to score goals and do well here.’
The Brazilian was full of enthusiasm during a recent Everton in the Community event
Richarlison is talking at an Everton in the Community event at the club’s training ground. In Brazil his charity work has helped to build football pitches near where he was raised and he sponsors South American students to study maths overseas.
At Everton, he has a reputation for being ‘last in the building’ whenever players attend an event such as this and, playing five-a-side with a group of youngsters as part of the Premier League Kicks scheme, it is not hard to detect a certain enthusiasm.
At one stage, as he wrestles with a youngster at a corner, it is tempting to wonder if a yellow card may be forthcoming.
‘I think I kicked one of the kids accidentally,’ he says later with a grin. ‘But, you know, it’s fun. We train all day and then go home so when there are moments like this we make the most of it.’
The forward wrestles with a youngster at a corner kick during the community event
This interview takes place in Portuguese, through a translator. Richarlison is taking English lessons and speaks it to his team-mates but doesn’t have the confidence yet to try in public. TV series such as The Last Kingdom are helping with the process, as is repeating some of the songs Everton fans have started to sing in his honour. ‘Yeah, I sing them when I am on my own,’ he says. ‘It helps me remember.’
He had only just turned 20 when he joined Watford from Fluminense in the summer of 2017 and found the transition difficult. On his way to join Ajax when Silva called him, he actually signed a less lucrative contract than the one offered in Holland simply because he wanted to play in England. None of that helped him with the weather or indeed the food.
‘It was hard at first and I lost 5kg (11lb) during my early days at Watford,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t used to the food here so my diet was basically hamburgers and Coke. That was for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. I was just training that hard and not eating properly. I think I lost a lot of muscle.’
These days Richarlison is billeted up the coast in Crosby. Last year he bought his beloved dog and it was on his way home from a training session that he was told it was missing. ‘I looked for him on the beach but couldn’t find him,’ he recalls.
‘So I posted it on social media and started getting messages from fans saying they were out looking for him. I didn’t expect that reaction. I love that dog. He was chasing sheep and it was a couple who found him. I gave them two shirts as a present as they had already given me a present by finding him. Happily they were both Everton fans.’
Richarlison lifts the Copa America trophy after Brazil’s final victory over Peru in Rio de Janeiro
The greatest day of Richarlison’s career was followed by a dressing-down from his boot manufacturer. When he scored the third goal of Brazil’s Copa America final win over Peru last July he did so in yellow boots in honour of his hero Ronaldo. ‘I got a telling off from my sponsors as they were not the latest model,’ he says. ‘But it inspires me to wear them so it was worth it. It’s not just Ronaldo I love, it’s Neymar too. I want to do the same as both of them if not even better.’
His hero worship of Neymar once extended to copying his hair style. At some point soon that relationship may morph into professional rivalry. Neymar was injured last summer so Richarlison, Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Jesus and Philippe Coutinho filled the four attacking berths in coach Tite’s team. It is clear five in to four won’t go.
As for Ronaldo, that love still goes on. Richarlison still watches videos of the great man on his phone before games, although he is yet to make up for his nervous first encounter with his hero at a sponsor’s event two years ago.
‘I didn’t know what to do at the time,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘I just froze. My friend had to tell me to have a photo with him. I have it in my house now. You have your role model and he is suddenly right in front of you. You have idolised him as a child and then there he is. It was a crazy moment. I still watch the videos every day but I also watch some of my goals too.’
He was told off by boot manufacturer Nike after scoring a penalty whilst wearing an old model
On the internet there is a short film showing Richarlison celebrating his Copa America call-up with his family, watching the announcement on TV at the house he bought for his grandmother. ‘Afterwards they let off fireworks and I went and played football with the local children,’ he says. ‘It is a special place.’
His love for Brazil is clear and he has already told Olympic coach Juninho, once of Middlesbrough, that he is available for selection for the Tokyo Games this summer. ‘It’s always an absolute honour to put on that shirt,’ he says. ‘It makes my hairs stand on end just to think about it.’
In common with many of his international team-mates, Richarlison’s journey through the grades in Brazil was not easy. His neighbourhood was poor and many of his friends have been to prison. As a kid, following his parent’s separation, he sold sweets, made cakes, worked at a car wash and helped on his grandfather’s farm. After failing a trial at Figueirense, he almost gave up.
The former Fluminense star has scored 25 goals in a season and a half on Merseyside
‘That was on my birthday,’ he says. ‘I had travelled thousands of kilometres down south and rejection made me feel like a nobody. I came home and my motivation fell. I didn’t want to train. Luckily I have good people around me and they put me on the right path.’
It was a path that eventually led Richarlison to America MG in Belo Horizonte, 350 miles from home, and then to Fluminense in Rio. Three and a half years on from his debut in Brazil’s top division, it has been an express journey.
Richarlison’s numbers at Everton are impressive, scoring 25 in a season and a half. It feels as though he is ready for the next step. But are Everton?
‘Well, it’s important for us to work under a manager with all that experience and all those trophies and titles,’ he says. ‘There is a lot to learn and its important every day to ask a lot of questions of him. I think we can all improve under Carlo.’