GOMES: BIG PHIL GAVE ME BIG BREAK.

Byline: By NEIL McLEMAN

SPURS keeper Heurelho Gomes has revealed how he was given his big break as a youngster in Brazil by Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.

After impressing in goal for his school team, Gomes was invited to train with Cruzeiro where he caught first-team coach Scolari's eye.

"I was only the reserve keeper for the junior side," recalled Tottenham's pounds 7.8million summer capture. "But then one day I was asked by Mr Scolari to join the first-team for training.

"It was amazing. I had leapfrogged the main junior keeper and here I was training with Brazil international goalkeeper Dida, who was someone I looked up to and still do. Just to be involved gave me masses of confidence and I learned so much from Dida and Scolari in those early days."

For Gomes, who will face his former boss at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, it was a world away from the grinding poverty of his upbringing on a farm without electricity in south east Brazil.

"You might read about my background, my mannerisms, and you might think I'm a little eccentric, but you'd be wrong," insisted the 27-year-old.

"I'm a guy who likes to be happy and I come to work with a smile on my face. I appreciate what I've got now because it hasn't always been that way for me.

"My family had very little money, we had no electricity, and the only time I saw a TV was if I went to the home of one of my friends. It was a very sheltered upbringing."

Read the full interview in Hotspur magazine, on sale today.

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