Newcastle’s £40m striker Joelinton nearly died in a lorry accident when he was just 12-years-old

NEWCASTLE’S record signing Joelinton has revealed how he literally fell off the back of a lorry and was lucky to escape with his life as he grew up in a poor part of Brazil.

And he had to share barren, bobbly pitches with cows and bulls in the backdrop of Alianca, the place he calls home in north east Brazil.

At the tender age of 12 he headed off for trials 50 miles away at Brazilian top-flight club Sport Recife, eventually joining their academy two years later.

The 23-year-old striker was only 18 when he moved halfway around the world to join Hoffenheim in Germany, the next stepping stone on his £40million journey to become the Toon’s most expensive player.

But back home the temperature was always above 25C, and it was in those stifling conditions that he made his way to play football – and had a frightening accident which has left him to this day with a terrible scar.

In an interview , he said: “I was 12 years old. We were going to play football but the pitch was far away.

“A truck was going slowly up the hill and I jumped on the back of it. I was holding on with two of my friends, just trying to get to our game.

“And my mum does not know this, until now… I ended up falling onto the road. I cut my arm.

“I told her it was from playing football because I knew if I told her the truth she would ground me for a whole week and I wouldn’t be allowed to play.”

Several botched operations later, the scar on Joelinton’s arm looks horrific even today.

He said: “This is the scar I have to live with.”

But just one week after the fall, his life changed when he took part in a trial for Sport Recife in his hometown.

He explained: “There were about 170 children. In Brazil, we call it a ‘sieve’, a selection process for players.

“They would watch so many children and try to pick the best. I had only just injured my arm and it had been operated on. It was all bandaged up.

“I scored four goals and made some more. I played so well. I was the only boy chosen.

“I then had more trials with Sport Recife. This was the moment which started my career.”

But the pristine pitch at the Tottenham Stadium, where Joelinton scored the winner this month – his first Premier League goal for Newcastle – is a far cry to some of the places he has played growing up in north east Brazil.

Showing a photo of the pitch he played on, he said: “This is the field where I played every day with my friends from five years old.

“It wasn’t the best, nothing like St James’ Park, is it? But we were always happy, doing what we loved, the sun always shining.

“People who had cows or bulls used to leave them locked up in the field so they could graze on the grass.

“Then other bulls would just wander over, that was quite normal. You just had to dribble around them!

“But if they got in the way too much we would lead them off and tie them up somewhere else and then get back to playing. Nothing stopped us.”

He shared a bedroom with his sister, while his mother, Silvania, was a cook at his school and also cleaned. His father, Jorge, worked in a sugar cane power plant.

Joelinton made his first-team debut for Sport Recife six years ago at the age of 17 after some tough years away from his family.

He said: “There is a lot I learnt there, a lot of hardships also.

“I was living with 13 other boys in a dormitory — and no, I still don’t know how to cook!

“But it shaped me, as did my childhood. It feels like my whole life has been working towards this opportunity.

“To have the number nine shirt is a show of faith, an honour. It is up to me to repay that with goals. This is just the beginning.”