Carlos Henrique Casimiro, is a Brazilian professional footballer born 23 February 1992. He is known for his work rate, strength and aggressive play. He is regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. In an interview recently he talked about how his career as a defensive midfielder began.

Casemiro: " When I went to the trial at Sau Paulo I was a forward, I was pretty strong, I was always the tallest player at that age and I used to score a lot of goals with my head."

"When I turned up, I was about 12 or 13 years old, there were about 300 players there and they were only going to choose 50. I remember very well that when the coach asked who were goalkeepers, three people put up their hands. Then he asked how many were forwards and 40 or so kids put their hands up and I said to myself, ‘there’s a lot of competition so I won’t be a striker.’

"Then the coach said: ‘Are there any defensive midfielders?’ Seven or eight hands went up so I said to myself: ‘Ok, I’m a defensive midfielder.”

“I trained as a defensive midfielder during the trial and the coach pulled me aside and said: ‘You’re not a defensive midfielder, you came here as a forward.’ But I kept insisting that I was and that’s where it all started.”