Tiago Bebé Biography; Cape Verde International, Career Stats

Tiago Bebé Biography; Cape Verde International, Career Stats

Tiago Bebé Biography

Tiago Manuel Dias Correia, also known as Bébé, is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Rayo Vallecano, a Spanish La Liga club. He is also capable of playing as an Attacking Midfielder (AM) and a Striker (ST). Bébé is 33 years old and wears the number 10 shirt for his club and 21 for the national team, his preferred foot is right. He stands at 1.90m (6ft 3in) tall. Bébé was born on July 12, 1990, in Agualva-Cacém, Portugal.

Bebé’s Family Life

Bebé’s early life was marked by hardship, as he was abandoned by his parents at a young age and grew up in a homeless shelter near Lisbon. Bebé played for Portugal at the under-21 level and now represents the Cape Verde national team at the senior level.

Manuel Bebé is a football player of Cape Verdean descent and is the fourth player of Cape Verdean origin to play for Manchester United. The other three players are Nani, Patrice Evra, and Henrik Larsson. He was given his nickname “Bébé” meaning “baby” in Portuguese by his older brother.

Tiago Bebé’s father, Francisco, and mother, Deolinda, abandoned him when he was a young child. He was raised by his grandmother in a suburb of Lisbon until he was 12. Later, a court placed him in the care of the church, and he moved to the Casa do Gaiato shelter in Santo Antão do Tojal, 20 km outside Lisbon.

During his stay at the shelter, he played for the CAIS team in the 2009 European Street Football Festival in Foča, Bosnia, along with seven other residents. Although he scored four goals in six games, the team did not progress beyond the second group stage of the tournament.

Bebé’s excellent performance in the festival made him eligible for selection to the national homeless squad. However, he did not play in the tournament.

Manuel Bebé started his football career as an amateur with Loures and later joined Estrela da Amadora in 2009. He was then signed by Vitória de Guimarães in 2010 but was quickly transferred to Manchester United for a fee of about £7 million. This transfer occurred despite manager Alex Ferguson admitting that he had never seen Bebé play.

Bebé Struggle 

Tiago Bebé struggled to make an impact on the Manchester United first team, and as a result, spent time on loan with Turkish side Beşiktaş and back in Portugal with Rio Ave and Paços de Ferreira. He then joined Benfica permanently in July 2014.

After loan spells in Spain with Córdoba and Rayo Vallecano, he joined Eibar in July 2016. He returned to Rayo Vallecano in January 2018, on another loan spell. In August 2018, he joined Rayo on a permanent deal. During the 2022-23 season, he had a loan spell at Zaragoza.

Despite these challenges, he has made a name for himself as a professional footballer, enjoying success at various clubs throughout his career.

International Call-Up

In August 2010, Bebé received his first call-up to the Portugal under-21 squad for their 2011 European under-21 qualifiers. He played as a striker in their match against England on 3 September, which ended in a 1-0 loss. Three days later, he scored his first goal for the under-21 side in their final qualifying game against Macedonia, contributing to their 3-1 win.

August 2011, while playing for Portugal’s under-21 team in a friendly against Slovakia, Bebé suffered a cruciate ligament injury to his left knee, which kept him out for six months.

During January 2019, Bebé expressed his interest in playing for the Cape Verde national team due to his Cape Verdean ancestry. Although he expected to play in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, he was not called up.

However, on March 16, 2022, he received his first international call-up for the Cape Verde national team and made his debut in a 2-0 friendly win over Guadeloupe, scoring his side’s second goal in the 50th minute.

In December 2023, Bebé was named in Cape Verde’s squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast. He made his AFCON debut in the team’s opening fixture on January 14, 2024, a 2-1 win over Ghana.

In the team’s second match, Bebé scored the first goal with a free kick to give Cape Verde a 1-0 lead against Mozambique. The Tubarões Azuis eventually won the match 3-0, securing their place in the knockout stage of the competition.

Tiago Bebés Club Journey

Bebé played for amateur side Loures before being signed by Segunda Divisão side Estrela da Amadora in the summer of 2009. He finished the season with four goals in 26 league matches, regarded as the club’s star player. However, Estrela faced financial problems and offered him around Europe for £125,000 but found no takers.

On May 2010, his former agent, Gonçalo Reis, offered Bebé to PSV Eindhoven for free, but PSV turned down the offer as they did not know anything about the player. As their financial situation worsened, Estrela stopped paying his wages, so Bebé broke his contract and signed for Portuguese Primeira Liga team Vitória de Guimarães in the summer of 2010 on a free transfer.

Initially, Tiago Bebé’s contract with Guimarães included a €3 million release clause, but this was increased to €9 million following his performances in pre-season games. He finished with five goals in six friendly matches.

Only five weeks after he signed for Vitória de Guimarães, Manchester United agreed an undisclosed fee with the Portuguese club for the transfer of Bebé. The fee was reported to be around £7.4 million, believed to be the value of the buy-out clause in the forward’s contract, though reports in Portugal claimed the fee was €9 million, of which the agent company GestiFute received €3.5 million, and the club received €5.5 million.

It was also reported that Real Madrid and Benfica were interested in him. Ferguson met him the day before the transfer, after being recommended to buy him by his former assistant Carlos Queiroz.

On 6 September, he was announced as part of the 25-man squad for Manchester United to play in the Champions League. On 22 September, Bebé made his debut for Manchester United as he replaced Park Ji-Sung in the 74th minute of a 5–2 away victory over Scunthorpe United in the League Cup third round.

On 2 October, he made his Premier League debut, replacing Anderson in the 80th minute in their 0–0 draw against Sunderland.

His first start came against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the fourth round of the League Cup on 26 October, scoring his first goal in the process, United’s first in a 3–2 home win. His first Champions League goal came on his debut in the competition, scoring the final goal of a 3–0 away victory over Bursaspor on 2 November.

On 16 June 2011, Turkish side Beşiktaş signed Bebé on a season-long loan deal, with the option of making the move permanent for £2 million. However, he suffered a cruciate ligament injury while on international duty with the Portugal under-21 side, which ruled him out for six months.

Bebé made his return from injury and made his debut for Beşiktaş in their Süper Lig match against İstanbul Belediyespor on 26 March 2012. In April 2012, Bebé was banished from the Beşiktaş squad after breaking a team curfew and staying out until the early hours of the morning.

After leaving Beşiktaş, Bebé was selected for Manchester United’s pre-season tour. In his first game, he scored an injury-time volley to save a draw for Manchester United. However, he was unable to break into the team for the season ahead, and on 27 December 2012, Portuguese side Rio Ave confirmed that they signed Bebé on loan.

On 9 January, Bebé made his full debut in the Taça da Liga and scored the only goal of a 1–0 win against Marítimo in the 74th minute to qualify for the knockout stage.

Bebé Trophy Won

Bebé won the Primeira Liga and Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira with Benfica in 2014-15, and the Segunda Division with Rayo Vallecano in 2017-18.

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