Michael Beale looks relaxed as he surveys São Paulo’s players warming up at the peaceful Barra Funda training ground close to the city’s chaotic and congested Avenida Marginal Tietê. A little over three months ago he would have been watching a similar scene in rather different surroundings at Melwood. Now the Englishman is explaining why he left Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool for the Brazilian club.

“The two things that clinched it for me were visiting São Paulo’s facilities and speaking to Rogério Ceni,” he says, namechecking the manager. “Before I came I tried to explain to friends and to my boss at Liverpool that the size of Rogério at this club is like Ryan Giggs or Steven Gerrard back home. Ceni was paying me a huge compliment. When I visited the junior side set-up at Cotia it made me excited. The facilities are outstanding. It’s been very good for São Paulo. If you look at the squad now, 13 or 14 players have come from there. In England you have fantastic facilities. But Cotia is up with anything I have seen in Europe.”

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In December last year the then under-23s coach told Liverpool he was turning his back on the Premier League to become assistant coach at São Paulo. This came as a big surprise because Beale had been making a name for himself. In the previous three years he had helped 18 players from the junior side get a crack at first-team football.

Klopp called the move “a bit of an adventure” but other colleagues at Anfield and at Beale’s former club Chelsea, thought it was an amazing opportunity.

Beale is working under Ceni, a São Paulo legend. The Brazilian’s stack of honours include a World Cup winner’s medal in 2002 as a squad member and he is football’s highest-scoring goalkeeper with a remarkable 131 goals.

After retiring from football in 2015, Ceni took a year’s sabbatical in Europe where he studied coaching. It was there he met Beale. Although Ceni had mooted the idea of a job, a concrete offer did not appear until late last year. Beale still needed persuading. The coach then had what he described as a “whirlwind nine days” when he travelled to São Paulo, went back home and made a decision within 48 hours to take the post.

The games in Brazil come thick and fast and Beale soon got a taste of things to come. “There’s a big disparity between the new and the old stadiums. A lot of English players and coaches would turn their noses up at some of the changing rooms and facilities I’ve seen. But then there’s Palmeiras’s Allianz Parque, which is wonderful. Our stadium, the Morumbi, has a unique feel to it. When it’s full it’s one of those things that you wish every coach or player could experience. It’s a bit like how I felt when I was lucky enough to work at Anfield – that had a special feeling”.

After four months in the job, São Paulo are still a work in progress. The 36-year-old Beale, Ceni, and the veteran coach Pintado, are trying to instil an attacking philosophy at the club. This is a slow process and while the goals have been going in, they could not save the Tricolor from narrowly going out of two tournaments in the past week.

Beale describes his experience as fantastic but says he often gets asked why a coach at Liverpool would want to come to Brazil. “There are many reasons. Just in the Florida Cup we played River Plate and two days later Corinthians. So straight away for an English coach those games are special. Going to Santos was brilliant. For us to win there for the first time in seven years was amazing.”

The obvious stumbling block is his Portuguese. Beale relies on the Frenchman Charles Hembert, who is the club’s first-team football supervisor. “I feel sorry for Charles,” he says with a laugh. “He’s trying to run his own life but now he’s also heavily involved in mine. Clearly I have some difficulties with the language. But football words are much easier. There are many ways to communicate with a player. You can demonstrate and you can move. Basically, once you know the verb it’s easy to communicate with actions and single words.”

The playing schedule is gruelling. Throw in the distances, the heat, the humidity, and kick-off times that vary from 4pm to 9.45pm and it is clearly no picnic working in Brazil. Beale argues that these factors, plus the dry pitches, affect tactics and the energy of the players, and says he is not surprised that most teams sit deep in defence and play possession or counterattacking football.

“Here in Brazil they have outstanding individuals. In a team in England, maybe three or four are technically very gifted, and there’s a mix of what you’d call ‘old-fashioned’ British players. But here every player has a trick and has the ability to play one v one.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Supporters of Brazil’s São Paulo cheer for their team outside Morumbi stadium before the 2016 Copa Libertadores semi-final first leg against Colombia’s Atlético Nacional. Photograph: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images

What has really impressed him are the fans. “The supporters are extremely passionate. The way they greet us at the Morumbi when we arrive. Thousands wait for us at the airport, then follow us to the hotel and stay outside singing. That just doesn’t happen in England.”

Off the pitch Beale and his family have been enjoying life in Brazil – a large house, a pool; the family was even offered a maid but turned that down. Although not blind to the country’s problems, he says people are more sociable and friendlier than back home. “I think no one rushes around. In England we’re too uptight with the schedule of the day. Here everyone wants to have a conversation. I’ve met fans from all the big clubs but everyone’s been very welcoming.”

Beale spent 10 years at Charlton playing alongside Scott Parker and Paul Konchesky. After becoming what he describes as a “failed footballer” he lost enthusiasm for the game but went into coaching at 21. He got his break at Chelsea working with their six-, seven- and eight-year-olds and that led to a full-time job.

Since then he has worked with coaches including Brendan Rodgers, Paul Clement and Steve Holland. “I was lucky at Liverpool. Academy director Alex Inglethorpe brought back a number of ex-players to work around the academy. So we had Rob Jones, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, who’d come in on a regular basis. They didn’t coach but they were there to give advice. In the last few months Kenny Dalglish did that. He’d be at the academy three or four times a week and be a mentor to the staff. When I left we sat down for a couple of hours and he talked to me about my development as a coach. I really appreciated that. It was invaluable. When you think about having someone like Kenny you can call that’s a big plus.”

His experiences as a winger had a major impact on the philosophy of the nine coaching books he has written. “I’ve got a huge desire for individual development and fine-tuning players. I don’t believe in saying there’s no ‘I’ in team. There are 11 individuals in a side and I think it’s more about fuelling the individual than tactics.”

He has had calls from coaches wanting to know about working in Brazil and says he would recommend the experience “100%”. “I think more British coaches need to come outside and educate themselves. Football in England is unique. It’s only played like that in England. We have become good at coaching that. But it’s not a world game so we have to go out and learn.”

Beale admits he is on a steep learning curve in Brazil but he will have some time to reflect on his first four months when he travels to England to take his Pro-licence in May. This is all part of a long-term career plan that includes getting experience abroad, picking up a second language (third if you count his basic Spanish) and increasing his knowledge of football.

Despite the recent cup exits, Beale believes São Paulo are on the right track and he is confident he will see out his two-year contract. But he knows it could go pear-shaped quickly. Although he remains a realist, his positivity comes through in every conversation.

“I’ve been lucky at Chelsea, Liverpool and now São Paulo to have worked at big clubs with big players and I’d like to keep that trajectory going. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to be a manager and I’ll be a better blend from this experience. That’s the next step. It could be in the UK or abroad. It’s important to take different opportunities. The chance to come to Brazil was a one-off. I’m the only English coach here. I just had to take it. Of course I’m hungry. I’m not on the top of the mountain but that’s somewhere I’d like to be one day.”

Jon Cotterill is a São Paulo-based sports journalist. He is on Twitter @pitacodogringo