Joanderson Normandes, 22, had to grow a lot in the last 15 months. A talented forward, the player from Maceió had traveled to Ukraine to continue his rise to stardom just eight days before the war erupted in the country. He faced rough days before coming back to Brazil and life is yet getting in shape.
Recently, Joanderson helped Penedense conquer the Second Division of the Alagoas State Championship. The 114-year-old club is the oldest in the state and has been rebuilding until now. The title gives them a place back in the first division next year, where they will compete for participation in biggest Brazilian competitions, such as the Copa do Brasil (Brazilian Cup).
Joanderson is a finisher kind of striker, with good jump, impulse and speed. He scored two goals during the team’s run.
Despite being only 22-years-old, the Brazilian already has football stories to tell. He had been at CRB, CSA and ASA, the three biggest clubs in the state, in their youth categories. He got professionalized at ASA, which prompted him into the international scenario.
There came the opportunity to join the ranks of FC Volchansk. He was in Kharviv when the first bombs hit the ground in the dawn of February 24, 2022. His dream of doing better for his family, out of nowhere, was appearing to be impossible. He would have to fight for his life.
“I played in Ukraine in search of something better in life, right? A better future, a better job, improvements, a better salary, a dream come true, right? A dream came true too. So, the first days there in Ukraine before the war were the days when I most made plans and dreamed, you know, for the future. I was already there, I stopped and thought, ‘Hey, I’m already here. Now it’s just thinking about the future’. I started making plans and stuff.”
READ MORE
++ Former Atlético Madrid player Diego says that Diniz should be a definitive choice
++ The man who guarded Neymar now leads Brazil’s fut-7 team
++ Is Neymar able to play for Brazil in the World Cup qualifiers?
@j.normandes on instagram
******
How did you receive the news of the war? “Since when I woke up, which started the war, I was already hearing the bombings, far away. I was already desperate, not believing that I was in the middle of a war. I was desperate and immediately started crying, I didn’t quite understand what was going on. So I went looking for information with people from Brazil, family members. They were calling, messaging. I went to try to find a way to leave the country, talking to anyone I could. I spoke to my agent to see what could be done, those were the first steps. See what could be done for us to survive and to leave Ukraine.”
“But at the end of the afternoon, the bombings were getting closer, the bombs could be heard louder. The apartment where we were there was even shaking. It was a desperate moment. I just thought I was going to die, I just wanted to say goodbye, I just sent a video to my family saying goodbye. I just thought it wasn’t going to work anymore.”
Did anyone help you? “We had the help of some Brazilian women who met us on a subway, took us some sandwiches, explained some things. And we also had the help of a couple who made their house available, they gave us their house. A couple who live there in Slovakia, which was the border that we crossed to be able to have a refuge, when we left the country.
Do you speak English? “There was a lot of difficulty with the language, a lot. I don’t speak English and there was Russian. I know very basic English, I know the basics of the basics. Luckily, one of us spoke a little English and helped me a little. Helped a little in this situation.”
When did the first problems start? At the beginning there, when the war started, we were still calm, more or less. We were in the apartment, there was food, there was food. Our fight started when we received the information that there was going to be a train leaving Kharviv and went down to buy food, right? But everything was already closed and we only had a bag of food, biscuits, and popcorn. And then when we decided to leave, that was the problem.”
“We got hungry, we got thirsty, we got cold too. So we stayed there for two days, in Kharviv, waiting for something, something new, some train, some plane to take us out of there. But within two days we received the information that there would be that train. But we didn’t know where the train was going, only that it was leaving Kharviv. And we decided to go. We took a train from Kharviv to Lviv to Kiev, from Kiev to Lviv. And we found the embassy staff. People took us to the border and we crossed the border.”
Are you OK with all of this? Mentally? “I’m not going to say that I’m 100% cured because there are days when I catch myself thinking there, suffering a little for the opportunity I missed. Because it would change my life, right? It was going to change my life. I suffered a little when I arrived, I suffered a lot more when I arrived in Brazil, I woke up thinking there was a bombing, I couldn’t hear a noise that I thought was a bomb.”
“But nowadays I don’t suffer from it. I just think about the opportunity that was lost in my life when I arrived from Ukraine. My life is OK, but not as good as it could be if I was playing there. In fact, I received proposals that didn’t even come close to what was going to be there, you know? And to this day my life is not stabilized. Both the finances and my work are not so stable. I don’t have a long contract, I only get a three-month contract, I finish competitions.”
Courtesy
What did it mean for you, winning this title for Penedense? “This title was very important for my life. First for being champion in the state where I was born. This is very important. And being able to be a champion after going through a process, going through a war, thinking that I was going to die, thinking that I was not going to see my children, friends and families, relatives. That feeling of being a champion, there was a moment when I thought, wow, that day I was about to die and today I’m here, today I’m a champion.”
You are still very young. What are your next dreams? “I still have some dreams to be fulfilled. I think of playing for ASA, I think of playing for Penedense, but everything is as God wants. I have some dreams to be fulfilled here in football, having a successful career, with several titles, with several stories good to tell.”
“I always dreamed of playing in Europe. I think it is the dream of many players in Brazil to play in Europe. I had the opportunity, I faced the war, but the dream is still there. I still think a lot about playing outside the country, mainly in Europe.”
Who pushes you the most? “The dream that encouraged me the most, that helped me the most, that most pushed me to play was my father, always, always my father, but over the years I got to know some people who influenced me a lot in my life, in football they helped me a lot, they gave me a lot of strength.”
