theguardian.com
Before the former Brazilian clubs Atlético Madrid and Chelsea clash, he addresses Mourinho, Simeone, and meeting Michael Caine.
“It was the best thing I’d ever seen in my life.” Filipe Luis is not talking about the scenes when, after 14 humiliating years, Atlético Madrid won a derby, finally beating Real Madrid, and also at the Bernabéu in a cup final. He doesn’t talk about a quarter of a million fans lining the streets demanding an unlikely championship in the league. And he’s not talking about the 80,000 Madrileños who came to Lisbon or packed Milan with them. Those nights haunt him now, after all.
“He is not talking about the finals of the Europa League, although Atlético won them; about lifting the Copa América at the Maracanã; going to the World Cup with Brazil having overcome the “greatest challenge of my career,” a fight for fitness so hard, so emotional that Netflix wanted to make a movie about it; or the wild celebrations when his current team, Flamengo, “perhaps the most challenging club on earth And he’s not talking about parading the trophy with Chelsea in the Premier League, either, although this happened in London.
He’s not even talking about football this time, however, he will, and in striking, genuine detail. Instead, Fulham, the former Chelsea defender, and Peterborough Road resident speak about the time Michael Caine met him. Not many people know that, so it’s a good place to start a long conversation with a footballer who’s obsessed with astrophysics and, most of all, with movies.
