WHEN Barnsley fans sing their famous ‘it’s just like watching Brazil’ chant, it has special meaning for one of their youth coaches.

Tiago Rodrigues is from the South American football-mad country but has worked at Oakwell for almost four years, having married a woman from Barnsley who he met during a decade as a cabin manager for an airline following a semi-professional playing career around the world.

He is now assistant youth development lead coach in the Reds youth system.

The 41-year-old told the Chronicle: “It was amazing when I came here and heard the fans singing ‘it’s just like watching Brazil’. For me it was like ‘woah, what are they singing?’ It was great.”

Tiago, who is from Porto Allegre in the south of Brazil, was in the youth teams of both the major clubs in that city – Gremio and Internacional – before moving as an 18-year-old to Oceania for his senior career.

He played for two clubs in New Zealand, Queenstown then Metro FC in Auckland, before he went to Australia where he had spells at Heidelburgh United, Oakleigh Cannons and Melbourne Knights, who were managed by former Leeds and Newcastle striker Mark Viduka.

He retired from football in 2010 and moved to Dubai where he became a cabin manager for airline Emirates, flying across the world, while also playing football in a league in the UAE.

During that time, he met his now wife Samantha on a flight. She is from Silkstone and was working as an air hostess.

They returned to her hometown of Barnsley in late 2020, and have lived in Silkstone ever since.

Tiago said: “The idea was to move to England and see what happens.

“Until my visa got sorted I couldn’t work so I was just riding a bike around Silkstone and Barnsley. Everyone has really welcomed me here.

“It’s quiet, not like the big cities where I have lived before. Everyone is lovely to me.

“My wife is very good friends with Bobby Hassell’s (Barnsley FC academy manager) wife, so I already knew him when I came here.

“He knew my background and said: ‘why don’t you come and work at the club?’

“I had done some coaching in New Zealand but my real coaching journey started in Barnsley.”

Tiago started at the development centre on Friday nights. He said: “It was really hard because it was cold and raining.

“After two weeks they invited me to be head coach of the under 11s. It started from there.

“Now I mainly work with the under 15s and under 16s in evenings then, in the day, I work with the under 18s and under 21s on individual sessions and position specific sessions.

“When I stopped playing in 2010, I thought that was it for football and that I was going to see the world.

“Coming back to football, it feels like I was born for it and like I am at home.

“I love coming to work every single day and we’ve been getting a lot of success lately.”

How does he cope with the Barnsley accent?

“I think I do well. Sometimes they say some words that I do not understand. But they say that I am more Barnsley than them.

“I think the kids look up to me because I am Brazilian. They ask a lot of questions about how we learn in Brazil. I count in different languages sometimes for them.

“You might see me in my training sessions introducing a few things we learn in Brazil.

“It is very different in Brazil, the way kids learn. Obviously the weather here doesn’t to allow you to be on the streets playing all the time. But there is a lot of great stuff going on in England.”

One person Tiago gelled with straight away is Fabio Jalo, the Portuguese teenager who is seen as one of the best talents to come out of the Reds academy in recent years.

“I speak to him every day.

“Obviously we both speak Portuguese.

“I took Fabio under my wing when I came to the club. I have a really good relationship with his dad. He’s a Portugal under 20 international and he’s at Barnsley – it’s very exciting.

“There are a lot of new boys coming up who hopefully will get to the first team. We have Fabio and Ollie (England under 216s captain Oliver Wilkinson). There are some coming very soon I believe who will get the eyes of the supporters.

“The work we’ve been doing is excellent and the talent we have in our hands makes it easier.”

Barnsley under 15s have qualified for the Floodlit Cup, in which they are in a group with Manchester City, Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers.

“We are very excited about it. The under 15s are a really good team who can take us a long way.

“Other age groups have qualified for cups as well. We are taking all the teams overseas on tours. We have played Juventus, Benfica, Sporting and were really successful. It’s good for the lads to be exposed to that.

“The under 12s played in the International City Cup at Man City and we came fifth out of eight against all big European teams.”

Tiago is hoping to eventually progress into coaching senior teams.

He said: “For anyone who starts in an academy, your ambition is to get to the first team.

“I am working to that and I know I am going in the right way. There are people around me who will guide me and help me reach my goal.

“First team is the goal.

“We have good examples of people climbing from the academy to the first team. The club has those doors open. The fact we are all in the building helps because we share a lot of knowledge.

“Bobby is a personal friend but, at work, it’s professional. He has a bit of a Brazilian attitude.

“We share the same interests.

“All the coaches have welcomed me.

“It’s great to be learning from Nicky Eaden who is a legend here.”