'I got a call from God' Watford keeper Gomes to become a pastor
The days are ticking by and Heurelho Gomes hasn't heard a thing. No hint, no inkling, no wink of reassurance about a decision that has been taken as a foregone conclusion up in the clouds.
'There are 11 of them coming on planes,' he tells Sportsmail. 'That is six brothers and four sisters. My mum, she is coming too.
'They are flying here from . The only one who is not is one of my brothers. He cannot make it, but the rest, they are coming. They all expect me to play. Me? I expect nothing, my friend.'
With that comes the warm laugh of a warm man whose life as a goalkeeper is '99 per cent' certain to end with Saturday's FA Cup final, whether he gets the gig or not.
What the 38-year-old has planned for his second life will be every bit as interesting, and possibly even more so, but first Gomes has to deal with the countdown. The not knowing.
The uncertainty over whether he will start for Watford against Manchester City at Wembley, just as he started the previous five rounds, or whether Javi Gracia will go with Ben Foster, who played every minute of every Premier League game.
Helping is what Gomes does. Always has done. In a basic sense, and in the parlance of football, that meant helping Cruzeiro to a league and cup double in Brazil in 2003 and helping PSV Eindhoven to four straight Eredivisie titles between 2005 and 2008.
In a deeper form of the term, helping is what he has done in the 11 years in England when he has not been winning trophies.
-Dailymail