The Bebeginning

In September 2013, Bebe embarked upon his final loan stint as a Manchester United player. The team was Pacos de Ferreira, a team in the Portuguese First Division with a home capacity of 7,000. Pacos was a club in turmoil - manager Paulo Fonseca had left the club in the previous season to join FC Porto, with his position was taken up by the inexperienced Costinha. Costinha was sacked one month into the season due to poor results.

The Story

Pacos' season would have been an even bigger disaster if it wasn't for the 13 goals by Bebe, 11 of which came in the league. Those numbers might not be too impressive for a player of Bebe's stature, until you realise how hopeless the rest of the team was and how hard Bebe had to work for these goals. The second highest scorer in the team had three goals all season, and no other striker in the Pacos team managed more than one goal. Pacos managed 28 goals in the league all season, meaning more than 39% was scored by Bebe. For comparison purposes, in the same season, 'White Bebe' Lionel Messi scored only 28% of Barcelona's league goals.

Bebe saves the day

Pacos finished second from the bottom in the season, which meant a relegation playoff against Desportivo Aves. The first leg added 0 - 0, setting the stage for a performance that would forever be etched in footballing folklore. Bebe opened the scoring with arguably the goal of the decade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuxqwT3Wj28) and finished with man of the match honours as Pacos won 3 - 1.

Report: http://www.prideofalleurope.com/video-bebe-to-the-rescue-as-pacos-de-ferreira-avoid-relegation/

Controversy

At the end of the season, there were serious talks of selecting Bebe in the Portuguese World Cup team. Bebe was the top-scoring Portuguese player in the league, and coach Paulo Bento attracted criticism when he selected three strikers who scored a combined 6 goals in the league all season: Eder (3), Helder Postiga (3) and Ivan Cavaleiro (0). Also selected was Nani, who managed no goals whatsoever for Manchester United that season.

Portugal was promptly eliminated in the group stage, while White Bebe carried Argentina all the way to the final.

Further reading: http://www.espn.in/football/team/portugal/482/blog/post/null http://worldsoccertalk.com/2014/07/06/portugal-striking-woes-underline-bebes-exclusion/

Epilogue

Meanwhile, Manchester United finished 7th in the league, with Wayne Rooney (17 league goals) and Robin van Persie (12) as their leading scorers. At the end of the season, Bebe was immediately snapped up by treble-winning SL Benfica.