He is only 19 years old and has not even been in European football for 11 full months, but Vitor Roque already knows very well the unpleasant effects of suffering from excess pressure. He was projected to arrive in Barcelona this past summer of 2024, but the Catalan club decided to bring forward his signing to January of this same year and from then on everything was anxiety and haste despite scoring in his first games with the Blaugrana. Quite the opposite has been his first sensations at Real Betis, where he feels like he has landed on his feet. In Heliópolis he feels “at home” and wants to talk in the field; but in ‘Can Barça’ it was difficult for him to adapt and he still carries part of that weight on his back. His main points of support in bad times are God and his family. To be inspired in the countryside, your idol can surprise, especially in Catalan lands.
His adaptation to Betis, totally different from his arrival at Barça
“I was in Brazil without knowing if I was going to come to Spain or not. I was on vacation and I found out only a week before that I was going to Barça in January. Then I had few opportunities there and I had very bad times, the truth is, but I lived everything as a learning experience.. “I learned a lot of things and now I am very happy here at Betis,” said the young forward in an interview with the program ‘Everything in Green’of Betis TVwhen asked about his millionaire transfer.
Like green and white, He made his debut at the Santiago Bernabéu against Real Madrid, playing for half an hour, and in his debut at the Benito Villamarín he played another 28 minutes and scored his first goal.against CD Leganés. He celebrated with a lot of rage and euphoria, stretching out his shirt and kissing the shield with the thirteen bars. “It was impressive, not in my wildest dreams did I imagine scoring in my first home game and I was very happy. A weight was lifted off my shoulders, after going through moments that only God and my family know about. They have helped me become stronger and now “I feel perfect in Seville.”
The origin of the nickname ‘Tigrinho’
“I always tried to put pressure on my teammates, but the most beautiful thing is to score a goal in this stadium. I really wanted to score another one, because I only had one here – against Leganés, the others had been away against Osasuna and Gévora ( 2)- and thank God it happened (against RCCelta) with a very good pass from Johnny”, explained the ‘Tigrinho’, who has also revealed the origin of that family nickname: “My father was ‘Tigrao’. They said it to him because there was a song called that and he listened to it a lot.. Then, since I was their son, they called me ‘Tigrinho’.”
Cristiano Ronaldo, a ‘non grata’ idol in Barcelona
Vitor Roque has surprised by answering the question of who his football idol is, since he is a footballer who is not particularly loved by Barça fans. “My idol has always been Cristiano Ronaldo. I also really like Neymar, because of his Brazilian magic, but I have always paid a lot of attention to Cristiano”, he has detailed, among other curiosities of his life, how he loves to play Lego: he has already built several cars and a helicopter, now he is assembling a airplane. He also loves animals and has two little dogs, one of them very betic. “He doesn’t like me to put clothes on him, he never does; but when I put the Betis one on him, he came out walking as if nothing had happened,” he proudly acknowledged while seeing the image that he himself shared on social networks.
Predestined to wear the ‘8’ of Betis
During the interview, Vitor Roque also saw a photograph of him playing “in América Mineiro, when he was very young, only 10 years old.” There he had the ‘8’ as one of his first numbers, which curiously he now wears at Betis after inheriting it from Nabil Fekir who closed his exit shortly before the forward’s loan from Barça was completed. “I always really liked ’10’, but I started playing as a pivot or midfielder, so I started playing with ‘5’ and then with ‘8’. Now here I take him again.”
