DOUGLAS LUIZ shops in Tesco with his superstar girlfriend Alisha Lehmann. Back home he’s seen people stabbed and shot: His brutally honest interview
Douglas Luiz still remembers the day he didn’t get to training on time, the day when his father’s car was needed for something more urgent.
‘I was about to go training with my Brazilian club Vasco de Gama but someone in the favela had been shot in the head,’ Luiz tells Mail Sport in a very matter of fact way.
‘They brought him to my father’s car. It was 8am. I had to get out of the car as my dad had to take him to the hospital. At least he survived. Some things are more important than football eh?’
Luiz, the Aston Villa midfielder, knows the meaning of that last statement well. The 25-year-old was born and raised in a two-room house in Rio de Janeiro’s Nova Holanda favela in the north of the city.
It is part of a favela complex that is home to 130,000 people. The life he lives now, a life of comfort and security in the Premier League, is very different but that does not mean he has forgotten.
Douglas Luiz is starring for Aston Villa in their pursuit of Champions League qualification
Luiz spoke to Mail Sport about his journey from the favelas to the top of the Premier League
The life Luiz lives now is very different, but that does not mean he has forgotten his roots
Luiz is in a relationship with superstar partner Alisha Lehmann, but they have a normal life
‘I have many friends from the favela and many of them are going the bad way,’ Luiz explains. ‘I am not happy about that but it’s so difficult. People just don’t have opportunities. You need to eat. Feed your family. You may have a baby. You have to do something.
‘But everything is harder for us. If we go for a job in, say, a supermarket but we come from a favela, we don’t get the job. It’s so wrong but it’s true.
‘I have seen everything in my life. I have seen people stabbed in front of me. I have seen people shot. Many bad things. But the good thing is that those communities are strong. If you don’t have food, the community will help. That’s a good part of it.’
Luiz is one of many Brazilian footballers supporting the work of Sao Paulo entrepreneur Edu Lyra as he looks to improve the conditions of the millions of Brazilian still living in slum conditions in the favelas.
The number of favelas in Brazil doubled between 2010 and 2019 and they are currently thought to be home to more than 14million people. Edu Lyra’s Gerando Falcoes (Raising Falcons) initiative doesn’t aim to rid Brazil of the favelas but instead help to lift their inhabitants out of poverty by teaching them life skills and working with local activists and support groups.
On Monday, Luiz and other Brazilian footballers such as Willian and his Fulham team-mate Andreas Pereira will attend a fund-raising dinner at London’s Savoy Hotel.
‘It’s so special to help with this,’ adds Luiz. ‘What the Falcons do is amazing. They give people in the favela an opportunity.
‘I didn’t hate my life there. It’s where I learned football. When I was a professional at Vasco I still loved that pitch so much that I played for my brother’s team. I made him champion! I would finish my training and run to the favela to play for his team. My family still own that house there. We rent it out now.
‘My first pay cheque in Europe, I gave it to my mum and told her to buy herself an apartment and enjoy her life. Because she gave everything to me. But that doesn’t mean we forget where we came from. No, we never forget.’
Alongside fellow Brazilian footballers such as Willian and his Fulham team-mate Andreas Pereira, Luiz is supporting the work of Sao Paulo entrepreneur Edu Lyra as he looks to improve the conditions of the millions of Brazilian still living in slum conditions in the favelas
Luiz heaped praise on Villa boss Unai Emery for completely transforming the club’s fortunes
This week at Aston Villa’s training ground, manager Unai Emery gathered his players together and reminded them of something he had told them at the start of the season.
‘At the start the coach said he wanted to be in Europe but he told us the truth about the big teams at the top and how powerful they are,’ Luiz said.
‘He said he wanted to fight with one team in particular and that team was Tottenham. He actually reminded us of it this morning. He said: “I told you it would be Tottenham didn’t I?” He’s smart. He knows our level.’
Villa’s levels are perhaps higher than anybody would have expected when Emery replaced Steven Gerrard in October 2022.
They have been on an upward trajectory ever since and ahead of today’s game at Arsenal, Villa are in fourth place. Tottenham fell behind them on goal difference after yesterday’s 4-0 defeat at Newcastle, though after today the London club will have a game in hand in the fight for the final Champions League position.
Luiz, an elegant and busy central midfield player, has been at the heart of Villa’s resurgence. He was the club’s Player of the Year last season and similarly influential this time round.
‘He has changed everything,’ Luiz says of Emery. ‘Before him we played long ball, more straight. Now he has come and he tells us to stay on the ball and take time. If the opposition don’t press, don’t pass. If they press then, OK, pass to one side or the other.
‘But he tells us to enjoy having the ball. Before it was hard. I am not about physicality very much. I like to stay on the ball and now I can do that. When he came here he wanted to work out our best positions straight away. I have always played at six — a more defensive player — but he came and straight away said: “Douglas, you are not a six. With me you are an eight. You are a good player. You can do box to box. Go and attack”.
‘I walked out of that meeting with a big smile.’
Luiz has worked with good coaches before. Pep Guardiola was one. Luiz’s first experience of English football was actually as an 18-year-old, signed from Vasco by Manchester City but ultimately unable to play because of work permit problems.
Luiz spoke to Mail Sport in his living room alongside his two brothers, Daniel and Devison
Luiz insisted a pre-season spent with Pep Guardiola’s Man City was the best time of his career
He signed for City as an 18-year-old from Vasco de Gama, but was beset by work permit issues
He spent two seasons in Spain with Girona — one of City’s feeder clubs — before Villa signed him in 2019.
‘I did a pre-season with City and that was amazing as I learned so much,’ Luiz smiles. ‘It’s crazy but it was the best three months I had in my football life. Pep pushed me so much. He said: “Douglas, on the pitch you are only seeing the first five metres. I want you to see 30 metres.”
‘He was talking about my vision. I felt like a different player. The second year after Girona, City wanted me with them but the paperwork was a problem.
‘It was a bad moment as I wanted to play but couldn’t. But it made me more strong. I had two years at Girona and it helped me mentally. I never cried about the situation. It was okay. And in the end it brought me here to Villa and I am very happy.’
Suspended for today’s game in north London, Luiz will pray for a result similar to the one Villa managed at the start of December. Back then, Emery’s entertaining, progressive side announced their intentions to the Premier League by beating City and then Arsenal at home in the same week. City, in their game, managed just two shots.
‘It’s incredible for us to be in the top five,’ explains Luiz. ‘Last year we were seventh and went to the Europa Conference League. That was great for us. Now we are trying to take another step.
‘Beating City and Arsenal made us so strong. We knew how difficult that would be. It’s so hard to play against both those teams and this year we beat them both in one week. These teams have such good players. If you do something wrong they will punish you. We know this and know we have to improve, especially away from home. At home we are so good.’
After last weekend’s 3-3 draw with Brentford, Villa striker Ollie Watkins said his team had lacked a big mentality on that occasion.
‘I am so happy to have Ollie in my team,’ says Luiz. ‘He is special. For me he is the best striker in England and he really needs to play in the national team. I see how much he has worked every day. He is so impressive.
‘And he was right when he said about mentality last week. It’s true but it’s also hard to achieve. The players and staff need to believe a little bit more. But this is normal. It’s not a big criticism or big deal.
‘Sometimes we are too nice maybe. At Manchester United, for example, we were 2-0 ahead and then fell asleep.
‘When you do that these teams will come and win the game in 10 minutes. But we are learning and progressing. It’s OK.’
Douglas Luiz spent two successive seasons with Girona on loan and impressed in Spain
He also insisted Villa team-mate Ollie Watkins was right for questioning their mentality
Luiz is talking to us in the TV room of his house in the Midlands. His two brothers Daniel and Devison are in attendance.
‘It’s important for me to have my family around me,’ he says.
His significant other these days is girlfriend Alisha Lehmann, a Swiss international and star of Aston Villa’s women’s team.
Lehmann has almost 17m followers on Instagram. ‘People say we are like a celebrity couple but we are just normal,’ says Luiz rather bashfully.
‘We go out for dinner. Go bowling. Go to the shop.’
When we suggest it’s hard to imagine Luiz and Lehmann pushing their trolley round Tesco, he counters.
‘I went to Tesco the other day,’ he laughs. ‘No, with no hat on or anything. I try to live my life. We both do. I like to go to Tesco. If someone wants to take a photo that’s OK.
‘We do everything normal. We go to dinner when we want. I am more a home person anyway. But of course I do want to do some social things with her.
‘Here in England everything is calm. If I go to the shop in Brazil it’s crazy, almost impossible. We have a good life here.’
Lehmann and Luiz try to attend each other’s matches but do not discuss football at home. He says she has the better technical skills but hesitates with a smile before suggesting she also has his number in the kitchen.
He also credits her with one important thing. ‘My English is much better because of her,’ he says. ‘My first two years I couldn’t speak English but then I met her and now I need to. We can’t have an argument if I can’t speak the language can we? If we have an argument we can now resolve it in the moment. Before I had to use my phone to translate everything from Portuguese to English! The first time it happened I couldn’t speak anything. It had to change.
‘She speaks so many languages. I think five. German, French, English, Portuguese and Swedish. I have three — Portuguese, English, Spanish. It’s not bad given that I didn’t even finish school.’
Despite being in a celebrity couple with Lehmann, Luiz said they just live a normal life
The Villa midfielder revealed the pair even shop in Tesco and hailed Lehmann as a person
Luiz has fast become one of the most reliable midfielders in the Premier League in recent years
With that we are back where we started, in the favela. His tattoos tell his story. The names of his family on his chest. Christ the Redeemer on one calf, an impression of Nova Holanda on the other. On one finger is even a picture of his father Edmilson’s moustache. When he was playing for Vasco’s youth team, he would raise his finger across his top lip every time he scored.
There were no dreams of England and the Premier League then. No dreams of playing for Brazil, of winning Olympic gold or playing in a Copa America final.
‘I was 15 when I arrived at Vasco,’ he explains. ‘There were kids who had been there since they were nine. Maybe they thought about Brazil. Me? I was playing football in the favelas at that age. So Brazil felt like “no chance”. Yes, it’s perfect to play for Brazil and for Villa but no it wasn’t even a dream.’
The small trail of ink that runs down his neck on the left side perhaps sums all that up. ‘I am from the favela but I have made it.’
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