Today, Abílio Mendes is one of the best-known people in Faro. Everyone adores him and enjoys spending time with him. He is invited on trips, to dinners and parties. But as a young man, he was left behind, alone, after the soccer trip that had brought him from Braga to the Algarve returned north without anyone noticing he was missing.
Abílio Mendes was born in Famalicão. However, he spent time with a close friend from Braga who passed on to him a passion for football and for Braga’s team. He was just 15 when he boarded an organised trip to Faro to watch a match against Farense. Everything was going well until, after the match, the bus that had brought him there left without him.
Abílio has cognitive disabilities and left behind in Faro, he wandered the streets until a man who worked at a restaurant near the São Luís Stadium noticed that he was lost. He offered him dinner. Then, somewhere to sleep. One day became another, and then another. Abílio stayed, gradually making friends, until one day he was asked whether he would like to work for Farense as the club’s kit man. Bilinho, as he is affectionately known, accepted without a second thought.
Abílio has now lived in Faro for 40 years. He is an employee of Sporting Clube Farense – the football club that inspires such passion throughout the region – and has become far more than a sports symbol. He is a local character, an institution in his own right. Who would have imagined that life could turn out so well after being dealt such a difficult hand?
Abílio is a kind-hearted man who speaks with a slightly hesitant voice. He cannot read. But his expressions reveal everything he feels, and he has a wide, open smile that he cannot hide. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I am Farense,” he says, filled with pride for the city and the club that took him in and gave his life a purpose.
Surrounded by footballers, season after season, and having witnessed thousands of goals, perhaps the greatest goal was the one Abílio himself scored: dribbling past a destiny that had tried to bring him down. Whenever Farense plays at home, the stands erupt when they see him walk by. “Abílio! Abílio!”
All children want to take pictures with him – making him serious competition for the club’s mascot: Fera.
Whenever he is asked a question, no matter how trivial, Abílio carefully offers his answer before immediately turning to whoever happens to be nearby and asking:
“Did I say it right or not? Did I say it right or not?” It is his trademark phrase, one that never fails to make his friends and acquaintances smile.
Abílio lives at Farense’s facilities – his world. But he is curious, and he has discovered other worlds too. Now 55, he has travelled widely and takes great pride in his remarkable collection of football shirts from some of Europe’s biggest clubs, including original, signed jerseys that very few people could ever hope to own. Every year, he saves part of his salary and pension to take a trip. He has already travelled to Mexico and Thailand. He goes alone, without fear, despite barely speaking Portuguese, let alone any other language. Everything is organised in advance for him, allowing him to enjoy his adventures.
But he always longs to return to his Farense, where he is cherished by club directors, coaches and players alike. Always eager to come back home, to the place where he is king – just like the lion on the badge of Faro’s football club.
