by There aren’t many Brazilian footballers whose common phrase is “oh my days”, but there aren’t too many Brazilian footballers roaming around in the sixth division of English football either. Lucas Covolan is not your typical lower league goalkeeper, but at 32 he is a veteran in the United Kingdom, after a dizzying career that has been accompanied by depression and the death of a coach on a journey that has taken him from Rio from Janeiro, through Spain, to Whitehawk. , Worthing, Torquay United, Port Vale, Chesterfield and now Maidstone United.
The National League South side, managed by former Wolves defender George Elokobi, will reach the third round of the FA Cup for the first time if they win at home to League Two Barrow on Saturday.
Related: Horsham’s lucky losers aim to grab an extra FA Cup chance and make history
Maidstone was not the obvious destination when Covolan began his career alongside Philippe Coutinho and Allan in the Vasco da Gama youth teams, where Juninho Pernambucano – arguably the greatest dead ball specialist of all time – would select the 6ft 4in teenager as their goalkeeper for free kick practice at the end of first team training.
“Juninho would put up his wall and ask me if I could see the ball,” says Covolan. “I’d say yes. Next thing I know: goal. Top corner. Top corner. Top corner. The ball was moving like hell. It was a crazy splash. Every time I tried to dive in one direction early, he read me and It was going in the other direction. I was basically just a cone.
“Coutinho was also on another level. Shortly after playing together at Vasco he signed for Internazionale. But he turned us into a great team and they called me up to the Brazil U-20 team.”
Covolan remains silent on the phone. He is clearly emotional remembering wearing that Seleção shirt, even after 13 years. “Thank you, because this interview gives me the opportunity to remember,” he says. “It was like a dream come true. Oscar [later of Chelsea] He played on that under-20 team and was incredible. Everyone knew he was going to be a star. He once arrived at training by helicopter. We were like, ‘Oh, my days!’”
Things could have been very different. Covolan almost did not survive the first weeks in Vasco. “I’m from the south of Brazil, from Curitiba, which is more colonized by Europeans,” says Covolan, who also has an Italian passport. “Rio was a different world. When I went to test there, the facilities were very bad, even for the big name Vasco. There were five bunk beds in each room, so there were 10 of us. I thought if I can live here, I can live anywhere in the world.”
Covolan spent three years at Vasco, before signing for the local club he supported as a child, Athletico Paranaense, also in the first division. But being the eighth goalkeeper in the squad was difficult and with little chance of getting minutes Covolan made the brave decision to break a three-year contract and leave for Europe, disillusioned by the prospect of poor facilities, irregular pay and security issues in the squad. Brazilian. lower leagues.
Spain was the first stop, but a series of unfortunate incidents made life very difficult. A Madrid club planted Covolan at the airport. He spent three months on trial with Real Mallorca and was told he was “too old” at the age of 24. Finally, in 2015, Covolan founded a third division club, UD Alaró, led by former professional Julián Ronda.
“He had many contacts in Spain and he really wanted to help me. But one night, she was playing with friends and suffered a heart attack. We were all like, ‘What?!’ He was very fit, but he died. “It was very, very sad.”
Covolan left for England in 2016 and his successful spells at Lewes, Worthing and Torquay cemented the idea that England was the place for him. At Torquay, he scored a dramatic injury-time equalizer in the 2021 National League play-off final against Hartlepool to force extra time, a moment Covolan calls his “happiest moment in football, without doubt”, even if the shine was taken away by Hartlepool’s eventual victory on penalties, despite two Covolan saves in the shootout.
His performances earned him a move to the Football League with Port Vale, who gained promotion to League One the following season. But what should have been the peak of his career turned out to be Covolan’s “low point.”
“I felt like I needed to be perfect,” he says. “I put so much pressure on myself that I no longer enjoyed football. I got depressed. I had it all at that moment. I am a very happy character, I love making jokes, I dance, I laugh, I have Brazilian blood. I never thought depression would be something I would experience. But I did it and it affected me a lot. I’m not ashamed to say it now.
“I would go straight to bed after training, straight to the PlayStation. I didn’t talk to my partner at the time, or to my friends, or to my family. It affected my performances, my body; “That’s when he was being aggressive on the field.” Covolan was sent off twice that season, including in his debut for Vale, and by January 2022 he had lost his place.
“I received help from the PFA, from the club, I spoke to psychiatrists and psychologists,” says Covolan. “It changed my life. They are still helping me but now I am a different person. I have breathing techniques, counting techniques. I know myself. I don’t want to wake up the monster.”
After a loan spell at Chesterfield, Covolan found peace in Maidstone, in this quiet corner of Kent, where he has access to a nearby Brazilian butcher.
Some habits are difficult to eradicate. “I still hold myself and others to very high standards. I give the fines to the team for Maidstone. It costs £10 to shower without flip flops, £10 if you don’t weigh yourself before and after training. Basically, I like to tell people what to do,” he says with a smile.
Elokobi values the contribution of Covolan, who says of his coach: “He is honest, he is organized, he has played in the Premier League, so he knows what it takes to improve. Sometimes hard work can trump quality.”
Maidstone and Covolan will need both to beat Barrow in the Cup and have the chance to face a Premier League dream team in the new year.
