1.
We are friends without being friends.
I bet you have friends like that too – people you don’t frequent, people you’re not with, but when you see them it’s as if they’ve always been there.
It’s like that with João Pedro Pais.
The last time I saw him he was in a rotting car. He opened the window and shouted “Luís”
… call me!
2.
I didn’t call, I almost never call, I’m a weird guy.
I didn’t call, but I admire João Pedro.
For his humility, for his solitude (even when accompanied), for the sadness he feels (even though he is successful in the lives he chose), for his enormous talent (even though he is not as recognized by the elites as he should be) and for his ability to impose himself without anyone’s help .
Nothing was given to João Pedro Pais for free.
He didn’t have a father to support him.
He didn’t have the money to alleviate his difficulties.
He wasn’t completely sure that he would count for totobola, that he would have the chance to earn his money, to survive when he finished his professional course at Casa Pia.
3.
When he was less than ten years old, he sang at school. And he learned to fight at boarding school, he learned to do combat sports, Greco-Roman wrestling and judo.
Everyone fell when they fought with him, they lined up to see if they could take him to the ground, but there was some kind of fire in that boy, an anger that wasn’t aggressive and malicious, but was anger… in less than a minute they were all on the mat. .
João went to world and European championships.
It had good classifications and was on the doorstep of the Olympic Games.
He narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Paris Games in 1992. At that time, his smile was even sadder, his maternal grandparents were no longer here, they were the ones who were filled with fear when he decided to disappear from them. from the view to riding the tram, they were his support.
Grandfather and grandmother.
His mother’s parents had to put him in Casa Pia because they wanted him to have a profession.
4.
I knew the fishmongers at the Benfica Market.
He ran through Jardim da Estrela where he perhaps had his first kiss.
He sang and danced without going out of tune.
He was short, but he had many suitors. They didn’t understand why he was so quiet, so shy, always in his own business, in his private world.
That has been your world since you first met.
Turned inward, ashamed of not knowing his place, of thinking deep inside that he doesn’t want to bother others, that he doesn’t want to be extra, to feel extra, to be mistreated.
João Pedro Pais is one of the greats.
Your smile is sad, but it has a pact with life and is true.
What he does, what he touches, what he says is true.
Now I’m the one telling you, call me!
Text and program by Luís Osório
Listen to “Postcard of the Day” on Antena 1, from Monday to Friday, at 6:50 pm. Available later on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and RTP Play.