"Ronaldo and I used to go to McDonald's to pick up the hamburgers that nobody wanted"

It was 2003. Cristiano Ronaldo had just signed for Manchester United, after Sir Alex Ferguson was impressed by the way he played. "Do you think I'm good? Wait till you see Fabio Paim," he said that summer.

And he was right. Fabio had everything it took to be a top player, just like his friend. Trained with him in Sporting's youth academy, success put everyone in their place.

Now, more than 20 years later, Cristiano Ronaldo is still an elite footballer at the age of 38, while Fabio's career went downhill after the star's premonition.

But Fabio Paim is still in the spotlight and recently spoke to The Sun about his days at the Sporting CP academy with the Portuguese star: "At night we used to go to McDonald's to pick up the burgers that nobody wanted any more and that were no longer good to sell. We were there every night for that. Sporting CP knew about it, but it wasn't like nowadays and they allowed us to go out".

 

October 19, 2023

Fabio Paim says that they had a few adventures together. "We were friends, I can't say best friends, but yes. I spent some holidays with him, one in Brazil. I met him when I was 8 years old", he said.

"I always remember Cristiano as a hard worker, very committed and as someone who wanted to be the best. He was always upset when he lost. Even he didn't know then that he was going to be where he is now. I knew then that he was going to be successful in football, a good player, but not that he would reach the level he is now," he said.

As for Fabio Paim's career, that is another matter. Success in football depends on talent, but also on head and common sense. Fabio had plenty of the former, but lacked the latter.

A series of bad decisions (and probably bad friendships) led him to throw away his promising career. The closest he came to turning professional was seven substitute appearances for Pacos de Ferreira in the Portuguese league in 2008.

His last known club was modest second division side Leixoes, but he was dropped to the reserve team and never even made his first-team debut. Used to a standard of living that was always beyond his means, it seemed only a matter of time before he made a serious mistake.

It was in the middle of last year. Fábio Paím, as the newspaper 'Sport' reminds us, was arrested as part of an operation against drug trafficking. He had several allegations of rape behind him, and several dismissals by some of the clubs he played for due to misbehaviour. And, after being arrested with a large stash of cocaine that authorities claim was for sale, Fabio Paim went to jail.