Brentford’s Emiliano Marcondes is switched on to the FA Cup after loan move reboots career

EXCLUSIVE
Up and running | Emiliano Marcondes celebrates scoring his first goal for Brentford in the third round against Stoke
Steve Bardens/Getty Images
Malik Ouzia @MalikOuzia_24 January 2020

When Emiliano Marcondes arrived at Brentford from Danish side FC Nordsjaellend in January 2018, he was handed his debut in an FA Cup third-round tie against Notts County.

As introductions to English football go, facing the world’s oldest professional club in the world’s oldest cup competition is about as authentic as it gets.

“It was crowded,” Marcondes recalls. “Typical English football, a lot of back and forth, no calm on the ball.

“I remember my dad said, ‘Imagine you have played in the FA Cup now, it must be a big dream’. I think it was a big dream for him as well, to see me playing in the FA Cup.

“We went one behind and I hit the post in the 92nd minute, the inside of the post, and we lost 1-0. So, not the best memory, but it was a thing I will always remember.”

Fast forward two years and the ­forward has righted that wrong, scoring a stunning free-kick to decide this month’s third-round meeting against Stoke and set up tomorrow’s clash with Premier League Leicester.

But the fact that that goal was his first in a Bees shirt tells you something about the 24-year-old’s struggle to adapt to life in England, both on and off the field, not helped by two serious injuries which limited him to 13 appearances in his first full season at Griffin Park.

“It was a very difficult time for me,” he says. “It was lonely when I was injured, being a little bit depressed sometimes.

“When you’re playing away from your own country, you only think about football all the time, especially when you live alone and you don’t have family or a girlfriend or friends around you.

“Everything is about football. That was a really tough time for me and I learned in that period that I need to think about other things and do other stuff when I’m off football. I’m growing and getting better at that.”

A loan spell at Brentford’s Danish sister club Midtjylland during the first half of this season helped turn things around, providing regular playing time and a familiar environment, and since arriving back in west London last month he has found a new housemate, defender Luka Racic, to help tackle the loneliness.

“In Denmark, I lived with a friend and that’s something I’ve brought here as well,” he explains.

“I talk to him all the time and we talk about everything, it’s not about football all the time and that’s important.

“I think it was a really good four months for me, both mentally and physically, playing all the games and getting back to that sharpness and confidence.”

With a return to his father’s homeland having rebooted his career, Marcondes hopes Brentford fans will start to see the best of a footballing talent born out of his Brazilian mother’s side of the family, his grandfather having been on Corinthians’ books.

“All my idols were from Brazil,” he says. “Growing up, I had a shirt with Pele, shirts with Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Rivaldo. My dad was always telling me they have glue on their feet.

“We went there a couple of times when I was young. Playing in the streets, where everybody was welcome to join in, that was really something we didn’t do in Denmark. I fell in love with football in Brazil.”

Still, it is the possibility of facing fellow Dane Kasper Schmeichel — and fulfilling another FA Cup ambition shared with his father — that has Marcondes most excited about tomorrow.

He says: “I hope he will play. To see him in goal and score against him — that would be one of my biggest dreams — to score against a Schmeichel! My dad’s favourite goalkeeper was his dad.”

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