It was meatballs before footballs for Manuel Agudo Durán 'Nolito' growing up on the run-down neighbourhood of Sanlúcar in Cadiz in Southern Spain.
'I worked in a butchers' shop when I was 15, selling the pre-cooked meats and cleaning up. Then in the evenings I would train with my team,' he says of the five-hour morning shifts that meant that he could take 30 euros home at the end of every week to help pay the bills.
The 'too much too soon' culture that has led some Premier League clubs to cap salaries for 16-year-olds to 40,000, is a world away from Nolito's formative years.