From the slums of Brazil to the heart of Daegu. This is the story of Sejingya (34), captain of the K-League football team, Daegu FC. He has been firmly holding his place as a key player in Daegu for eight years since 2016. As soon as he arrived, he raised Daegu from the 2nd division to the 1st league, and in the process of winning the first championship in the club’s history (2018 FA Cup), advancing to the first Asian Champions League, and raising the club’s best record (3rd in the K-League), Sejingya was the spearhead. was In particular, in the 2018 FA Cup, he became the top scorer with 5 goals and also won the MVP. So far, Daegu has played 213 games, 82 goals and 54 assists. The record for the most goals and the most assists among Daegu players ever, and the most appearances (Park Jong-jin, 242 games, retirement) is only a matter of time. 100% purity is perfect to remain as a ‘Daegu FC Legend (Legend)’. In Daegu, he is known as ‘The King of Daepak (DGB Daegu Bank Park, Daegu’s home stadium)’ and ‘Daegu Ero (Daegu+Aguero)’, and fans gave him the Korean name ‘Seo Jin-ya’. Aguero is a former Argentine national team goalkeeper.바카라
Cesingya’s real name is Cesar Fernando Silva Melu. Born in 1989 in Sao Jose Do Rio Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil. A poor village with a population of 7000. He lost his father when he was 5 years old. His mother and grandfather worked on farms and raised four siblings. Sejinya was second. To make ends meet, his mother was often away from her house. When her mother bought a month’s worth of food and went away in search of work for her, her four siblings used it to eat. After entering his teens, he worked as a servant after school to help support his household. But he had a dream. Like other Brazilian boys, he wants to rule the world with soccer. After work, he went to the playground and kicked a ball alone, and on the weekends, he formed a team and practiced games. People around him scolded him, saying, “You should rest even on the weekend, how do you work if you overdo it?” But he didn’t give up. In 2007, after juggling work, school, and soccer, he was able to join the SC Corinthians youth team, a prestigious Brazilian professional team. Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo also played for the team. And even made his professional debut with Corinthians three years later.
However, his dream of becoming a soccer star, which seemed to be within reach, was seldom within reach. He spent six years wandering the Brazilian professional clubs, but never saw the light of day. In 2015, he failed to score a single goal in 17 matches in the Brazilian top division.
A soccer team in Korea, a city whose name is unfamiliar to him, reached out to him. Daegu was a non-mainstream soccer team that belonged to the K-League Challenge (Part 2) at the time. It was a recruitment that jumped on the bandwagon of the so-called ‘Brazilian mercenary boom’, where “there are many cheap and good players in Brazil”. At the time, only about 20 Brazilian players were playing in the second division. He boarded a plane bound for Korea with the determination of his last challenge. And Sejingya’s success story opened a new chapter. Daegu coach Lee Jong-hyun (36) said, “Ever since I first joined the team, I had a particularly strong desire to succeed as a player, so I came out an hour earlier than the Korean players, started training, and took good care of myself.”
He is now treated as a hero in his hometown. As of last year, the annual salary he received from Daegu was 1.6 billion won. He did not amass great wealth, but he bought a house for his mother and brothers with the money he had saved in Korea for eight years. For the kids in his hometown, Sejingya is a ‘role model’. When I visit my hometown in the off-season, I give special lectures to the children and kick a ball together. The children are said to say, “I will become like Sejingya hyung.” He said, “More than anything, my mother is very proud of me,” but added, “I feel embarrassed because she keeps crying when I call her, as if she thinks that her son is struggling in a faraway place.”
Sejingya said, “For me, Daegu is the best fit for me. When I retire, I definitely want to be a leader in Daegu.” Sejingya’s popularity in Daegu is ‘Lee Seung-yeop level’. Fans flock to the department store on days when there are no games, and there are often even talk of erecting a statue of Sejingya. He said, “The whole situation is unbelievable,” but “I am grateful for receiving so much love in Daegu.”
Last season he also captained the team. He is the first foreign player captain in the club’s history. He wore the captain’s armband again this year. “I emphasize ‘confidence’ to his teammates,” Sejingya said.
At the A-match (national competition) between Korea and Brazil held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in June last year, he appeared on the field wearing a Korean national team uniform, not his home country (Brazil). He had his name and number 11 tattooed on his back. For him, Korea is no longer a second home. “Of course I support Korea,” he says confidently. Even at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, numerous fans asked Sejingya for autographs and asked to take pictures, and he was also surprised. “I never thought I would have such an experience in Seoul, not in Daegu,” he laughed.
He has lived in Korea for 8 years, but Korean is still difficult. He learns steadily from the instructor twice a week, but he’s just as clumsy. “He needs to learn more to communicate more comfortably with his teammates,” his pronunciation was still rigid.