Vagner Love's childhood returns to mind this Saturday afternoon. The "Artilheiro do Amor" (Love's Artilleryman) faces Bangu at 17 p.m. in his debut for Flamengo. It would be just another debut, just another game, if it weren't for the first time playing for the club he's supported since childhood, and against the team from the neighborhood where he was born and raised. Therefore, the match is special for the new Flamengo number nine.

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Still with many friends in the neighborhood, Love reveals that he hasn't received many requests from his classmates for two reasons: he has a new phone number, and most of his childhood friends are Flamengo fans. As a boy, Vagner Silva de Souza began playing seriously at age 8, at the Bangu Atlético Clube futsal academy, and his father would take him to training on his bicycle. He then went to São Paulo, Russia... and only returned to Rio for the holidays, but now he's back home.

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"I haven't spoken much to my friends here in Bangu yet, because I changed my cell phone number, I just arrived, but I have a lot of Flamengo fan friends, who will definitely be rooting for me," he revealed.

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While on the other side is the club that developed him, representing the neighborhood where Vagner Love was born and raised, the jersey he'll be wearing is also well-known: the red and black. Since childhood, the player has always frequented the stands at Maracanã, and so he'll soon be fulfilling a dream.

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"Whenever I could, I went to Maracanã. I remember a Fla x Flu match, where Romário scored three goals, I watched the Carioca final that year from Russia, on the internet, so whenever I could, I watched Flamengo," concluded the player, who considers Romário as a great idol in football.