Bê Martins
ComM
Bê Martins during the 2023 EBSL.
Personal information
Full name Bernardo Barral Martins Santos
Date of birth (1989-12-29) 29 December 1989
Place of birth Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
International career‡
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014– Portugal 176 (148)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 1 July 2023

Bernardo Barral Martins Santos ComM (born 29 December 1989), better known simply as Bê Martins, is a Brazilian-born, Portuguese beach soccer player who plays as a midfielder. He is a two-time winner of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (2015 and 2019); he claimed the Bronze Ball (third best player) award at the latter, and in 2022, was named the world's best player at the Beach Soccer Stars awards ceremony.

He has an identical twin brother, Leonardo, who is also a high-profile beach soccer player.

Biography

Be Martins playing for Flamengo in 2016.

Bê and his twin brother, Léo, were born in Brazil. Bê was born two minutes before his younger sibling.[1] Aged 18, they went to play association football in Spain on the promise of a contract.[2] However, when they arrived, an issue with their agent meant there was no club to sign for. The move was funded by their parents, but without an income the money soon ran out and the brothers found themselves broke and starving. Despite this, they stayed in Spain to attempt to recuperate the money for their parents.[3] Eventually, they landed a contract with CD Canillas.[4] During this time, they began the application process for Portuguese citizenship.[2] This was possible since their paternal great-grandfather was from the country. In 2009, citizenship was achieved.[5] Aged 21, in 2011, their contracts ended and their mother developed a health issue, and so they returned to Brazil. To maintain their fitness, they began training on the beach. Struggling to find a new football club, they started to pursue beach soccer instead, joining Vasco da Gama and soon after, Flamengo.[1][2] Bê progressed somewhat quicker than his brother; after impressing for Flamengo at the 2012 Mundialito de Clubes, he was offered a role at a Russian club to which he moved.[2] He was later followed by his twin.

Bê was called up to the Brazil national team in 2012 for an exhibition tournament in Paraguay.[2][5] However, soon after, Júnior Negão became the new head coach of Brazil, and Bê found himself out of favour.[5]

The twins received an offer to join the Portugal squad at the end of 2014 after playing for clubs in Italy.[1] Despite renewed offers from the Brazil national team for Bê, the brothers decided they wanted to represent Portugal instead, citing their belief that there would be less chance of a "follow-up" if they were to join Brazil, their admiration for the country, and for Portuguese legends Madjer and Alan[2] who supported their integration into the Portuguese squad when they learnt of their citizenship.[3] Bê debuted for Portugal at the 2014 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup,[2] six months before his brother, earning 15 caps during that time.[5]

The following year, aged 24, Bê was awarded with the "Rising Star" commendation at the 2015 Beach Soccer Stars awards ceremony, as chosen by the Beach Soccer Worldwide expert committee. This followed his role in Portugal's 2015 World Cup win.[3] That year, both brothers moved to Braga with whom they would go on to win multiple domestic and European titles.[2]

Bê was particularly influential during Portugal's 2019 World Cup win, being honoured as the third best player of the competition, winning the Bronze Ball award.[6] Following the World Cup victory, along with the rest of the squad, Bê was made a Commander of the Order of Merit.[7] In 2021, he was named as part of the year's world dream team.[8] In 2022, he won the world's best player award at the Beach Soccer Stars ceremony, the latter of which he described as "exceptionally rewarding" and a "recognition of all my hard work".[3]

Statistics

Honours

The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major international honours that Bê has achieved:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bê e Léo, a historia dos gémeos campeões do mundo por Portugal (in Portuguese). TSF. 2 January 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Melhor do que um campeão, só ter outro igual (in Portuguese). MaisFutebol. 3 May 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Be Martins: I wish I could split the Best Player trophy with my brother". FIFA. 5 December 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  4. ↑ "De passar fome a melhor do Mundo: salário de Bê Martins chegou a ser pago com carne do talho do treinador". Record (in Portuguese). 9 November 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 São gémeos brasileiros, mas é com um título por Portugal que sonham. Diário de Notícias. 4 July 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  6. ↑ Ozu, Gori and Andrade take home individual honours. FIFA.com. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  7. ↑ "Campeões do Mundo condecorados: "Bom exemplo para todos os portugueses"" (in Portuguese). ZeroZero.pt. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  8. ↑ "Ozu and Molly Clark win 2021 Best Player awards in Dubai". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 6 November 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
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