He was the 20-year-old boy that Sir Alex Ferguson infamously signed without having seen him play either in person or on video.

The boy without even a Wikipedia profile, whose professional football experience amounted to one season and four goals in the Portuguese third division.

The boy who spent his teenage years in a Lisbon orphanage and whose route into football was earned through the CAIS organisation, the body responsible for Portugal's National Homeless Team.

Bebe shows off his skills at Rayo Vallecano as he looks to rebuild his career after his spell at United

Bebe joined Rayo Vallecano on-loan from Benfica and has scored one goal in six games this season

Bebe says he is happy at Rayo Vallecano and enjoys living in Madrid

That boy was Bebe, the Portuguese winger that cost Manchester United £7.4m in the summer of 2010, even though his club Guimaraes had signed him only five weeks earlier on a free transfer from Estrela de Amadora.

Some five years on, Bebe admits that he was as startled as the rest of us when United came calling. ‘It was a shock for me, too,' he says, blowing out his cheeks. 'For the week leading up to it, I thought the whole thing was a joke. I thought they were leading me on.

'Then I realised it was serious. I was surprised. I was playing in the third division in Portugal and all of a sudden one of the world’s biggest clubs wanted me? That’s not very normal. I remember my team-mates and family calling and asking me "What’s going on? Is it for real?"

It was a plot line that Hollywood scriptwriters would take pride in but Bebe's Old Trafford fairytale would have no happy-ever-after. Bebe did not start a Premier League game at Manchester United and played a total of only 334 minutes in all competitions. Loan moves followed to Turkey and Portugal before he made a permanent move to Benfica when Louis van Gaal arrived in 2014. Again, Bebe struggled for minutes and spent the second half of last season on loan at Cordoba, who were relegated from La Liga.

Bebe joined Manchester United in 2010 despite manager Sir Alex Ferguson never seeing him play

Bebe joined United for a fee of £7.4m in 2010 but failed to make a name for himself at Old Trafford

Yet for the first time in a long time, Bebe's career is now on an upward trajectory. We meet at Rayo Vallecano's training ground in Madrid, where Bebe is on loan once again. He has made a promising start, scoring one wonderful free-kick against Sevilla and his new team have been preparing this week for a trip to Barcelona's Camp Nou this evening. Bebe is expected to start.

Tiago Manuel Dias Correia - given the nickname Bebe by his brother as a toddler - is entertaining company.

He invites Sportsmail to play a game of table football before we sit down for the interview (he wins 2-1, if you were wondering)and an engaging conversation follows in which he is as comfortable talking about Denzel Washington and James Bond as he is about his relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson and agent Jorge Mendes.

‘I know what they say in England. "Ah, that Bebe, he cost £10m or whatever and he was a waste." You have to understand that a lot of things had happened to me as a child. People don’t know what is going inside you as a person and within your environment. People labelled me in a certain way and it hurt. I was thrown into a situation but I was just a kid.'

Sportsmail's Adam Crafton enjoys a game of table football with Bebe at Rayo Vallecano's training ground

Bebe beat Sportsmail's Crafton 2-1 at their game of table football

Bebe opens up to Sportsmail reporter Crafton about his time at United and life in Portugal and Spain

Bebe opens up about his difficult childhood and his surprise move to Manchester United

The La Liga table show Rayo Vallecano in 15th

Bebe's moving story begins in Lisbon, where he was abandoned as a young child by his father Francisco and his mother Deolinda. He was raised by his grandmother until a court decree ordered him into the care of the Catholic church at the age of 12.

'I was saved by an orphanage called Casa do Gaiato. If you look here at my leg, I have a tattoo that says Gaiato. You don't understand what those people did for me. They saved my life. Everything that I’ve learned was at that orphanage. I learned to read and write. I saw everything there, good and bad. It was tough, it made me streetwise and everything I’ve achieved in my life I owe to those people. Whenever I return to Portugal, it is the first place I go to. Sometimes, I will still stay there. At Christmas, I try and buy presents for the children there. It is a nice thing to do. They are my friends, basically family and no matter how much I earn from football, that place will always feel most like home to me.'

Bebe was still living at the orphanage only two months before United came calling. The transfer was engineered by super-agent Jorge Mendes and an investigation by the Portuguese corruption unit followed. Nobody was charged and as with so many Mendes clients, Bebe only has warm words for his agent.

'I owe him everything. Jorge is the closest thing as I have to a father and he is very important to me. He helped to turn my life around but in Manchester, it was hard.'

Bebe joined Manchester United at the same time as Javier Hernandez and Chris Smalling in 2010

Sir Alex Ferguson told Bebe he thought he was a talented boy and could become a great player

Bebe says he owes a lot to agent Jorge Mendes who he describes as a father figure to him

The move from Lisbon to the North West of England was certainly a culture shock. After sharing a 15 bedroom dormitory with his friends at Gaiato, Bebe was by now on a contract reportedly worth £12,000-a-week at Old Trafford: ‘It was hard because everything happened so quickly. I was young, I had no family or friends there. I didn’t speak English. I remember the first training session. I was really nervous. I walked out and there’s legends like Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney. I was desperate to impress them. They tried to help me. Nani and Anderson spoke Portuguese so they would pass on Ferguson's messages to me in training. Patrice Evra and Chicharito were brilliant too because they speak Spanish, as I do. Evra is a special person, amazing for a dressing room.

'Ferguson told me that he saw me as a talented boy and that he felt he could turn me into a great player. He immediately tried to work out my temperament and encourage me. There was the second coach, too, what is his name again?'

Bebe bursts out laughing, points at his head and says careca - the Portuguese term for 'the bald one'. He is referring to Mike Phelan, Ferguson's trusted assistant.

Tall, broad and ruggedly handsome, there is a lighter side to Bebe's personality - he also lived with the Brazilian Anderson during his only full season at United - and he is constantly checking out the photos on our photographer's camera during a ten minute shoot out on the training field.

There is, however, also a vulnerability to his character and there are times during this interview that he becomes more emotional and particularly when discussing what went wrong at Old Trafford.

Bebe got on well with both Anderson (right) and Patrice Evra (centre) while at Manchester United

Bebe did not get too many first team opportunities while at Manchester United

Bebe only played a total of 334 minutes at United and celebrates with the Premier League trophy

'I was asking Ferguson if I could play. He told me to keep calm, that I was very young and that opportunities would arrive. I still learned a lot in training from him. I was developing tactically. Remember I had been training at a very low level so I had to learn many of the technical aspects of the game in terms of positioning, when to attack, when to hold back. But the best way to learn is to play so I lost a lot as well in that time because I played so little. I started against Wolves in the Capital One Cup and scored, I came off the bench in the Champions League, played well and scored. But I was getting five minutes here or there and it's not enough. I felt I needed a proper chance to show my value.'

Bebe increasingly trained and played with the reserves, where fans would teasingly chant: 'If Bebe scores, we're on the pitch'.

'Yes, I remember that. The fans were also kind to me, though. I think they liked me.'

Bebe shows off his skills at the Rayo Vallecano's training ground

Bebe is aiming to score 10 goals for Rayo this season and break into the Portugal squad for the Euros

Bebe says he was not far away from being included in Portugal's squad for the 2014 World Cup

In the summer of 2013, Ferguson retired and David Moyes arrived. 'When Moyes arrived, I had been on loan at Besiktas and then in Portugal. At Besiktas, I had a terrible knee injury so it was another blow for me. I'm not sure it would have made a difference had Ferguson stayed. David didn’t invite me to even train with the first team squad for pre-season. He didn't take a look at me or contact me. There was no explanation.'

Bebe headed out on loan to Pacos de Ferreira, where he scored 14 goals in the Portuguese top flight. His form was such that he was briefly considered as a wildcard inclusion in Portugal's World Cup squad for Brazil in 2014.

'I want to be remembered for my football. I wasn't far away in 2014 for the World Cup and if I score the goals I need to do, it gives me a chance. At Rayo now, my aim is to score 10 goals this season and get into the national team for the Euros. I believe in myself.

‘I am just a normal guy that has a dream. At home I'm very relaxed. I love the PlayStation and I improve my English by watching films. I love action stuff. Not James Bond though, I've never really got that. I love the black guy - Denzel Washington - he’s really cool.

'I am in a good place now. I am in touch with my family again, with my mother, grandmother and brothers. I have had a good start to the season and I love living in Madrid. I love playing in these famous stadiums against big players and what better place to demonstrate your value than against Barcelona.'