Bê Martins

Bernardo Barral Martins Santos ComM (born 29 December 1989), better known simply as Bê Martins, is a Brazilian-born, Portuguese beach soccer player who plays as a midfielder. He is a two-time winner of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (2015 and 2019); he claimed the Bronze Ball (third best player) award at the latter.

Bê Martins
ComM
Be Martins playing for Flamengo in 2016.
Personal information
Full name Bernardo Barral Martins Santos
Date of birth (1989-12-29) 29 December 1989
Place of birth Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
International career‡
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014– Portugal 120 (86)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of December 2019

He has an identical twin brother, Leonardo, who is also a high-profile beach soccer player.

Biography

Bê and his twin brother, Léo Martins, were born in Brazil. Bê was born two minutes before his younger sibling.[1] Aged 18, went to play association football in Spain. During this time, they began the application process for Portuguese citizenship.[2] This was possible since their paternal great-grandfather was from the country. In 2009, citizenship was achieved.[3] In 2011, their contracts ended and aged 21, they returned to Brazil to find a new club. To maintain their fitness, they began training on the beach. Struggling to find a new football club, they started to pursue beach soccer instead, joining Vasco da Gama and soon after, Flamengo.[1][2] Bê progressed somewhat quicker than his brother; after impressing for Flamengo at the 2012 Mundialito de Clubes, he was offered a role at a Russian club to which he moved.[2] He was later followed by his twin.

Bê was called up to the Brazil national team in 2012 for an exhibition tournament in Paraguay.[2][3] However, soon after, Júnior Negão became the new head coach of Brazil, and Bê found himself out of favour.[3]

The twins received an offer to join the Portugal squad at the end of 2014 after playing for clubs in Italy.[1] Despite renewed offers from the Brazil national team for Bê, the brothers decided they wanted to represent Portugal instead, citing their belief that there would be less chance of a "follow-up" if they were to join Brazil, their admiration for the country, and for Portuguese legends Madjer and Alan.[2] Bê debuted for Portugal at the 2014 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup,[2] six months before his brother, earning 15 caps during that time.[3]

The following year, aged 24, Bê was awarded with the "Rising Star" commendation at the 2015 Beach Soccer Stars awards ceremony, as chosen by the Beach Soccer Worldwide expert committee. That year, both brothers moved to Braga with whom they would go on to win multiple domestic and European titles.[2]

Bê was particularly influential during Portugal's 2019 World Cup win, being honoured as the third best player of the competition, winning the Bronze Ball award.[4] Following the World Cup victory, along with the rest of the squad, Bê was made a Commander of the Order of Merit.[5]

Statistics

Honours

The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major international honours that Bê has achieved:

References
  1. Bê e Léo, a historia dos gémeos campeões do mundo por Portugal (in Portuguese). TSF. 2 January 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  2. Melhor do que um campeão, só ter outro igual (in Portuguese). MaisFutebol. 3 May 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  3. São gémeos brasileiros, mas é com um título por Portugal que sonham. Diário de Notícias. 4 July 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  4. Ozu, Gori and Andrade take home individual honours. FIFA.com. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  5. "Campeões do Mundo condecorados: "Bom exemplo para todos os portugueses"" (in Portuguese). ZeroZero.pt. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
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