SAO PAULO, Brazil — Several years after leaving Jamaica, Brazilian masseuse Jose Camargo cries when he remembers the beautiful island that made him feel like a real man.

Jose, who has worked in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, came to Jamaica in 1996 with head coach Rene Simoes and after feeling the warm love of the Jamaica people, he made it his own.

As a black man growing in Brazil, Jose was never made to feel like a man until he graced the shores of Jamaica.

“When I came to Jamaica I hear Captain Burrell say, ‘I have a dream’. I also have a dream. I see black people in good positions that I don’t see before in Brazil, other than artistes and football players,” Jose told the Sunday Observer, as he made one of several visits to the Jamaican training camp.

“I started feeling better. I say, ‘Captain (Burrell), this is my country, I don’t have no reason to go back to Brazil’,” he added.

“I was just born in Brazil, but my heart goes to Jamaica. I want to come back to Jamaica and stay with my friends. I miss it too much, sometimes I cry.

“I never feel so well until I came to Jamaica. The people treated me so well; I miss everything. Ten years in Brazil and every day I dream about coming back to Jamaica,” he added.

“Where I am going to find dumpling, ackee and saltfish?” he smiled as he reminisced.

“I love Jamaica. My family is there; my wife, son, my grandson, I don’t feel well now, because I am out of my country. Jamaica is my country, not Brazil,” he reiterated.

Jose, who spent six years in Jamaica, was a part of Jamaica’s three teams that qualified for the World Cup. He was the masseuse when the senior Reggae Boyz made it to the 1998 World Cup in France.

He was also there when the Under-17s qualified for New Zealand in 1999 and again in 2001 with the Under-20s

in Argentina.

Ever since the National Under-17s arrived in Brazil on December 15, Jose has been around, not only to visit his son and current team masseuse Pablo, but because he “just loves Jamaica”.

Jose, 58, not only loves Jamaica, but its women as well and has taken unto himself a wife in Nicola since 2001. Together they have a son named Nicholas.

He currently works with Guarani FC, which finished 18th in the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A and were relegated to Serie B for the 2011 season.

“I need to work and take care of my family. Football is my life; it puts bread and butter on my table,” he said.

The Brazilian, who was in New Zealand with the Under-17s in 1999 at the FIFA World Cup, said based on what he is seeing now with this crop of players, they should qualify for another World Cup.

“I remember the Under-17 team in the New Zealand World in 1999 and I think this team is better. The players focus on football, they take it serious,” he said.

“Before, only the talent was there. Now these players look like professional players, the talent is there and the discipline together. They behave better than players from Brazil,” he noted.