Francisco ‘Chico’ Geraldes fronted the media after opening his account for Wellington Phoenix in the Isuzu UTE A-League, but it was no ordinary post-game press conference.
After scoring his maiden A-Leagues goal in Saturday’s entertaining 2-2 draw with Western Sydney Wanderers, there was talk about rock legend Mick Jagger and swimming with sharks in New Zealand.
Geraldes, on loan from Malaysian giants Johor Darul Ta’zim, hilariously discussed his recent experience in Invercargill on New Zealand’s South Island.
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“Was it Mick Jagger? I won’t re-produce what it told,” the Portuguese midfielder said in reference to the Rolling Stones famously describing Invercargill as ‘the arse**** of the world’ during a 1965 tour.
“You asked me about expectations, so my expectation was so low when I went to Invercargill. Was Mick Jagger right, what am I doing?
“Then I got there. Okay, it’s not that bad. I went specifically to swim with sharks. The experience was amazing.
“And Scotty (Wootton) also sent me a video of a shark going into the cage, I think it was in Mexico but I saw it after doing this, so perfect.”
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On swimming with great white sharks, Geraldes said: “First of all, it was very claustrophobic. I have issues with staying in tight places.
“There were so many things happening in the cage, so you can’t communicate with the teacher. It was my first time diving with oxygen.
“What are the signs – you have to follow procedures. Thumbs up is not you’re okay, it’s you need help, you need to go up. I was like I’m okay (gesturing with thumbs up), but I don’t want to go up.
“And then, because you have to take a lesson first and the lesson is in the ocean, I was thinking about 1,000 things in my head. I have to breathe, I cannot breathe with my nose, it’s hard, the signs I don’t remember and then you have a sign that you cannot put any part of your body outside of the cage but I wanted to interact.
“Then she was touching me and saying look at the shark, I was like f***, everything is going on, calm down.
“But the experience is great and I’m glad I did it.
“My mother didn’t like it, actually.”
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So, what did Phoenix head coach Giancarlo ‘Chiefy’ Italiano think?
“I didn’t speak with him about it but I think he shares the same opinion as my mother,” Geraldes said with a smile.
