Paulo Costa could be one of the many boys who have the chance to turn a small trial at a big club into an actual contract. But his story is so fantastic that only the fact that he trained at Manchester United for five days is enough for you to think of what football can do to people’s lifes.

The 15-year-old’s path to one of the biggest club in the world was covered on Thursday by Mais Futebol, a Portuguese website who got an interview with the player.

"I had a trial period at Manchester United, I trained five days with the U21 team and played two friendly matches, one of which I did an attacking partnership with Fellaini. We spoke only on the pitch, 'pass', “go”, 'here' and stuff. But we understood each other quite well. He is a very quiet bloke. It was a dream, amazing..."

Paulo was born in Guinea, and when he was just a few months old he went to Portugal with his parents. His father died shortly after, so he was raised by his mother with his two brothers.

Like many kids from Lisbon’s suburbs, Paulo grew up without any official documents. That meant the talented youngster spent many years playing only at school tournaments, because he couldn’t be registered through officials channels due to a lack of paperwork.

He could train at the Pontinha football club, but only played futsal for his school and for a club called Casal de Ratos. Paulo got the age of 15 without playing a single official football match.

But his life had a big change this year. He was discovered by agent Faustino Gomes, who took him to Portuguese club Sacavenense.

"He found me in school playing futsal. At that time I was training in CAC Pontinha because I had mates playing there and I didn’t want to be stagnant, but the club could not register me because I had no papers. Therefore I only trained," Paulo Costa told Mias Futebol.

"I had never officially played before. Then Sacavenense wanted me to stay, but I still had no documents so I couldn’t be registered. They only registered me in March, when I got my Citizen Card. Since then I’ve been playing for the U16s."

In one of Sacavenense’s U16 games, he was watched by a Manchester United scout, who took him to complete a five-day trial period at Carrington. He traveled to Manchester last week and had the chance to play two games for the U21s.

“It was good. The experience happened pretty well. Manchester United are very different, it is a very big club. I have always had a special admiration for the club since I was small and watched Cristiano Ronaldo playing there."

"My teammates received me well. I don’t speak English much, but I can speak a bit and I could deal with it. The first training didn’t go very well, I lacked the intensity they have and I was also a bit afraid. But after that it went well. I played two games, scored two goals in the first and one in the second one."

During his second appearance, Louis van Gaal, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt were all attending: “It was good, because Van Gaal was watching on the bench. I was waiting for staff to be at the match because I heard something about it, and I focused well before the start. So this game went fine for me "

Paulo is already back in training at Sacavenense. He now waits for a call from Manchester United, which could change his life for good: “Of course I've been anxious, it’s normal. I'm nervous to get a response from Manchester to find out if they want me there or not. I have to wait and see."

Lucas Sposito.