There aren’t too many Brazilian footballers whose go-to phrase is “oh my days” but then there aren’t too many Brazilian footballers knocking about the sixth tier of English football. Lucas Covolan is not your typical lower-league goalkeeper but at 32 he is a veteran in the UK, after a rollercoaster career that has featured depression and a coach’s death on a journey that has taken him from Rio de Janeiro, via Spain, to Whitehawk, Worthing, Torquay, Port Vale, Chesterfield and now Maidstone United.
The National League South side, managed by the former Wolves defender George Elokobi, will reach the FA Cup third round for the first time if they win at home to League Two Barrow on Saturday.
Maidstone wasn’t the obvious destination when Covolan started his career alongside Philippe Coutinho and Allan in the youth teams of Vasco da Gama, where Juninho Pernambucano – arguably the greatest-ever dead-ball specialist – would select the 6ft 4in teenager as his goalkeeper for free-kick practice at the end of first-team training.
“Juninho would set his wall, and ask me if I could see the ball,” says Covolan. “I would say yes. Next thing I know: goal. Top corner. Top corner. Top corner. The ball was moving like hell. It was crazy, the dip. Every time I tried to dive early one way, he would read me and go the other way. I was basically just a cone.
“Coutinho was also just on another level. Shortly after we played together at Vasco, he signed for Internazionale. But he made us into a great team and I got called into the Brazil Under-20s.”
Covolan goes quiet on the phone. He is audibly emotional at the memory of pulling on that Seleção jersey, even after 13 years. “Thank you, because this interview gives me the opportunity to remember,” he says. “It was like a dream come true. Oscar [later of Chelsea] played in that Under-20s team – he was unbelievable. Everyone knew he was going to be a star. One time he arrived at training in a helicopter. We were like: ‘Oh my days!’”
Things could have been very different. Covolan very nearly did not survive the first weeks at Vasco. “I’m from the south of Brazil, from Curitiba, which is more colonised by Europeans,” says Covolan, who also holds an Italian passport. “Rio was a different world. When I went for a trial there, the facilities there were so bad, even for the big name of Vasco. In each room there were five bunk beds, so 10 of us. I thought if I can live here, I can live anywhere in the world.”
Covolan spent three years at Vasco, before signing for the home club he supported growing up, Athletico Paranaense, also in the first division. But being the eighth goalkeeper on the books was difficult and with few options to get minutes Covolan made the brave decision to break a three-year contract and leave for Europe, disillusioned by the prospect of poor facilities, irregular pay and safety problems in the Brazilian lower leagues.
Spain was the first stop, but a series of unfortunate incidents made life very difficult. One club in Madrid stood Covolan up at the airport. He spent three months on trial with Real Mallorca only to be told he was “too old” at the age of 24. Eventually, in 2015, Covolan found a third-tier club, UD Alaró, managed by the former professional Julián Ronda.
“He had loads of contacts in Spain and really wanted to help me. But one night, he was playing with friends and had a heart attack. We were all like: ‘What?!’ He was so fit, but died. It was so, so sad.”
Covolan left for England in 2016 and successful spells at Lewes, Worthing and Torquay cemented the idea that England was the place for him. At Torquay, he scored a dramatic injury-time equaliser in the 2021 National League play-off final against Hartlepool to force extra-time – a moment Covolan ranks as his “happiest single moment in football, no doubt”, even if the gloss was taken off by Hartlepool’s eventual victory on penalties, despite two saves from Covolan in the shootout.
His performances earned him a move to the Football League with Port Vale, who gained promotion to League One the following season. But what should have been the peak of his career turned out to be Covolan’s “lowest point”.
“I felt like I needed to be perfect,” he says. “I put so much pressure on myself that I was not enjoying football any more. I became depressed. I had everything at that moment. I am such a happy character, I love to make jokes, I dance, I laugh, I have Brazilian blood. I never thought depression would be something that I would experience. But I did, and it hit pretty hard. I’m not ashamed to say it now.
“I would go straight to bed after training, straight to the PlayStation. I didn’t talk to my partner at the time, my friends or family. It affected my performances, my body; that’s when I was being aggressive on the pitch.” Covolan was sent off twice that season, including on his Vale debut and by January 2022 had lost his place.
“I got help from the PFA, from the club, talked to psychiatrists and psychologists,” Covolan says. “It changed my life. They are still helping me but I’m a different person now. I have breathing techniques, counting techniques. I know myself. I don’t want to wake up the monster.”
After a loan spell at Chesterfield, Covolan has found peace at Maidstone in this quiet corner of Kent, where he has access to a nearby Brazilian butcher.
Some habits die hard. “I still hold myself and others to really high standards. I hand out the team fines for Maidstone. It’s £10 for showering with no flip-flops, £10 if you don’t weigh yourselves before and after training. I like to tell people what to do, basically,” he says with a smile.
Elokobi values the input of Covolan, who says of his manager: “He’s honest, he’s organised, he’s played in the Premier League so he knows what it takes to improve. Hard work can beat quality, sometimes.”
Maidstone and Covolan will need both to beat Barrow in the Cup and have a chance of a dream draw against a Premier League team in the new year.