Man City's Matheus Nunes: If Pep Guardiola believes I should be here, there's no reason I shouldn't

As the rain and wind swirl around Manchester City's Etihad Campus training ground, Matheus Nunes' eyes light up like the sun. "I really want to learn from Kevin De Bruyne," he tells Sky Sports. "But I still haven't had a chance to watch him play yet!"

The Brazilian-born Portugal international is still getting used to the weather, but just as much his new surroundings. "If I thought this squad was good from the outside, they are even better seeing them every day," he admits.

"You can see why they won the treble. Everyone is so talented - even Ederson could play as a midfielder. Not that the players I played with before were not world class, but the levels here are different to anything I have seen before."

You would think these are the words of someone who can't believe their luck, joining a team who could be world champions by the end of December. But it's not quite like that.

This is, certainly, a far cry from balancing life in the Portuguese fifth tier with a part-time career in a bakery. The then-teenager barely had time to his friends, so busy was his work schedule. For clarity, he didn't actually do much baking either.

Now finding himself in more palatial surroundings, the 25-year-old is not overwhelmed. Instead, he believes he has learned the hard way to appreciate what he has.

"That comes not only through life in Portugal but my childhood in Brazil," he says. "It was very tough for my older brothers growing up, and they experienced a lot of things too. It gave me the roughness to succeed."

Nunes was primarily raised by his mother and has long seen her as his sole parent. "I never had a father," he told UOL Esporte in another interview. "Everything I've already achieved, and everything I am yet to achieve, will always be