What happened to the player Madrid chose over Coutinho?

A few months ago, Spanish newspaper 'Marca' brought Alipio's story to light and now in a recent interview, the Brazilian has revealed that during his time in the Real Madrid youth ranks, he began to hate football. 

Alipio recalled that at the time of his signing, he felt some discomfort in his knee that the club did not address: he said ''when they hired me, everyone knew I had tendinitis in my right knee, but they did not treat the injury. I took anti-inflammatories but there came a time when I couldn't play and Benfica helped me recover, I ended up having surgery and two months later I injured the cruciate ligament of the other knee...and another operation.'' 

The injuries deprived him of what could have been a promising career, ''After that, I left on loan to Cyprus, and from the second operation I knew I wanted to stop playing. After seeing what the real world of football is like, I felt let down by a lot of people.''

In addition, Alipio has a particularly heart-breaking personal situation. ''I am an orphan, my mother died when I was 10 years old and I never knew my father.'' He added that he had to look after himself after his life-changing move to Spain.

The 25-year-old said that he was a young player moving abroad to pursue his dreams, ''In Spain, football was my world, I had no family or friends, I lived for football and it didn't make me happy.'' Alipio also criticised the lack of support in the youth academy to help with the major life adjustments. ''A team cannot buy a player and expect them to adapt all on their own, no, it takes time and you have to do some things for them off the field too. Football never had patience for me.''