Alefe Santos spoke to Magpie Player on Friday, after completing his loan move to Notts County from Derby County.
The 19-year-old moved to England as a child and has overcome setbacks on his way to making it in the game, but is now looking forward to playing some regular first team football at Meadow Lane.
“I started when I was young, in Brazil, moved over here when I was 12, moved to Bristol and started playing football for a local team and then got scouted by Bristol Rovers at age 14,” Santos told Magpie Player.
“I didn’t get in, Bristol said I wasn’t good enough, unfortunately, I then moved to Stoke, played at Stoke for a couple of years, moved back to Bristol Rovers and my career started then, I made my debut at Port Vale at the age of 17 and from there I was playing first team and just carried on from there and now I’m at Derby.
“It was good playing a few games in League Two because you get experience and now I’m here, in a higher league and I just want to be playing games really.
“League One’s different to League Two, you’ve got teams that want to kick you about and you’ve got teams that want to play football, but at the end of the day, if you want to make it, you’ve got to go through the hard times and the good times.”
Subscribers can see the full interview with Alefe Santos on Magpie Player