Nuno Espírito Santo was in a terrible state, drunk. That, at least, is what his president thought, and exactly what Nuno wanted him to think. A young goalkeeper at Vitória Guimarães, he had been promised that if anyone came in with a $1m offer he could leave, and one day the Spanish club Deportivo La Coruña did just that – only for António Pimenta Machado to renege. “I thought: ‘It’s done, perfect,’” Nuno says. “But I went in and he said: ‘Now it’s five [million].’ I thought: ‘This doesn’t make sense.’” Denied the chance to leave, he considered giving up. Which was when they hatched a plan.
Nuno’s agent messed up his apartment and told Pimenta Machado that the player was in a bad way. “It was an act,” Nuno recalls, pulling faces as he runs through his repertoire that day, 20 years ago, slumping back in his seat, mumbling and unresponsive. “So, the guy came to visit me, the president of Vitória, and my behaviour was … I was acting like I’d come off the streets. And he said: ‘Is he drunk?’ When he left, the president said: ‘Take him tomorrow.’” Nuno pauses then adds: “‘Take him tomorrow … and don’t let them do a test on him!’”
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