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Watford star Richarlison on surviving the drug gangs of Brazil to becoming a Premier League sensation: 'They pressed a gun to my head and said they'd kill me... I was only 14'

Richarlison puts his finger to his forehead. He has been asked where the gun was pointing when he was threatened.

He was 14 years old, carefree and playing football in the streets of Nova Venecia, in south-east Brazil. And the muzzle of the gun was pressed up against his forehead, the gunman issuing all manner of threats for encroaching on his drug-dealing territory.

‘In that moment I was very afraid,’ says Watford’s new star striker. ‘Because if they just pulled the trigger then it was over. He told us that if he found us again he would shoot us without any problem — me and my friends.