João Cancelo recalls his mother's death: “He was skipping the cemetery wall...”

Joon Cancelo was this week’s guest of the SIC program, “High Definition”. The national team player shared some striking moments of his life, including the toughest episode he ever went through. 

It all happened when the footballer was only 18 and took a car ride with his mother and brother, until they had an accident on a freeway. His mother, Filomena Cancelo, couldn't resist the crash and eventually died. 

“ We were taking my father to the airport, going to Switzerland. On the way back, my brother and I fell asleep and I only woke up when the car was in the ditch. It was a thousandths of a second that changed my life forever. I remember some things. I remember my mother’s last cry”, she began to confide.

Next, the athlete stated that he sought to lift the car in an attempt to save his mother, but was unable.

“ I remember my brother crying in the backseat, still a child, eight years old. I tried to lift the car to get my mom under and I couldn't, I couldn't. That was all very dark, we were in the woods on A2 on a cliff. I tried to lift the car with my maximum force, but I could not, lifting a car is completely impossible ", he recalled.

Vividly moved, João Cancelo recalls the moment he told his brother only eight years old that he would never see his mother again.

“ The hardest thing was to tell my brother that he would never see our mother again. He told him ‘his mother went to live with the angels’ and he immediately began to cry. He hugged me and asked me never to leave him. I had to be strong and became the sustenance of my family”, he explained.

Still, the trauma experienced by the player led him to seek to be the pillar of the family. So he was trying to hide from emotions, except for the moments when he collapsed and went to the cemetery.

“ I tried not to cry to look like the leader, but I was a kid. I went to get strength where I didn't know I had it. These days, they're not little things that'll tear me down. At 2:00 a.m., I'd run out of the house, jump over the cemetery wall to go talk to her. They may seem crazy things, but felt need ", said. 

Despite having a successful life, João Cancelo ensures that he lacks “my mother always”, but that he believes he is proud of what he has achieved. 

“I never wanted to go to any stadium again”

After talking about his mother's death, João Cancelo also shared the struggle that the family lived to rise with the absence of the “pillar of the family”. The Portuguese international told us that the father mishandled his wife's death and has been in a depression ever since. 

Therefore, the sportsman reveals that the father will not watch his games and that he has never seen him play for the national team.

“ My father, from the moment my mother passed away, never wanted to go to any stadium. I mean, you've never seen any of my team games. It's something parents, I think they're all proud of their kids playing for the national team. You saw a game of mine from Barcelona when you went to Barcelona against Osasuna. ... But he prefers to abstract himself from all this because he says he would not accept an offense to me or call me some name, and then prefers to watch on television ", he said.

However, João Cancelo recognizes that his father is proud of his journey and that this is one of the best feelings he can receive from the person he admires most.