How football turned a Brazilian journalist into a digital nomad in the UK

Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Asafe Kevin. I am an art and media director, also a digital nomad and a content producer. I came from Paraíba, which is a state in the northeast of Brazil, a poor community, I would say. And my hobbies are travelling and working at major sporting events around the globe.

How long have you been living in London? How's life there?

I have a different relationship with the verb “living”. Since I'm a digital nomad, I don't live anywhere, I live everywhere. I have geographical freedom, the liberty to be wherever I want. I have been living in London for almost four years, but not four years in a row. But I was travelling and living in some other places as well. So that's my relationship with London, and I have a different lifestyle here. I don't really have a life like everyone: paying rent, having lots of bills. I'm living in a hostel, exchanging my bed for some hours of work, and pretty much-enjoying life and going to major football matches. So it's quite an unusual relationship with London than most people.

In which countries have you already lived and for which reasons?

I have lived in a few different countries, such as Brazil, Peru, France, Russia and England – 7 countries and more than 77 cities. I have been living in different countries for the past years with an agenda following the major sporting events.

What brought you to the UK?

What brought me to the UK was football. I believe London is the best footballer city in the whole world. They have as many clubs as you can have in the same city. Different categories, so first division, second division, Premier League in the other leagues. So that's the perfect place to be, if you want to work with football, if you want to explore and to be seen, to have opportunities to work with, especially with media and the entire organization, football talking. So I believe this is the best place I could ever be when related to all this, this point I mentioned before.

What's the coolest experience you have ever had abroad?

The coolest experience I ever had abroad, I guess I would say a personal one. I was living in Uruguay for almost 5 months, and I believe that was the coolest one because it was also the hardest to face, as it was the first one. I had just left my parent's house, and I was looking for an adventure to open my mind, so it was a mix of things but also lots of fun. I was living in a hostel close to the beach, having lots of work during the day, but also always seeing the sunset, going to parties.

What do you miss the most in Brazil?

What I miss most in Brazil is definitely the food and the weather. I miss having the sun and a nice tan. I also miss the environment created by football that we have in Brazil. Likewise, I miss going to Flamingo matches in Maracanã.

Why are you so engaged with football?

The reason I'm so engaged with football, I guess, came through the opportunities to go to football when I was a kid, related to not going to the stadiums. I was raised playing football every day, watching football on TV every day, but I was not allowed to go to the matches because my mom specially considered it very dangerous. It is an incredible experience to go to the major games, you know, the big matches: like those classic as we called Brazil as classicos – big teams from the same city against each other and also bike knockout games. So, I guess that's why I'm so engaged with football, and later on, I discovered that I love it, of course. I have a big passion for the game itself and the environment in each stadium around the globe.

What have been your challenges while living in the UK?

My biggest challenge while I was living in the UK, especially during Covid-19, was working at home. I was working 100% online until Covid-19 hit, but I was really at the beginning of my own business, so I didn't have anything yet. I had to come into the rats' race as we call it in Brazil, I mean I had to find a real job; I had to start making some deliveries and to get real money coming from tough work. Furthermore, my major challenge was that I had to look up locations and drive every single day to search every house every single day as we were waiting for the vaccines. That helped me a lot to have some kind of discipline and to believe in myself.

What advice would you give to someone interested in moving abroad with a low income?

My advice to expats interested in moving abroad, especially those with a low income, is that they realize that money is important, but they have lots of other assets they can use, such as time, knowledge, experiences, connections, friends, and family. So they should realize that and should use that in their favour. They have to be hungry for opportunities. The hungriest the person is for experiences, the furthest they will get.

Do you face any difficulties living in the UK? If so, how do you deal with them?

I guess I faced a lot of difficulties living in the UK, such as everybody else while living in London, especially because it's not easy; it's a very expensive city. You have to work a lot. The fact that I never applied for a working or resident student visa is also difficult. But I am also a hostage, let's say this way, of my own choices. But at the same time, I cannot stay as much as I would like, as I don't have all the papers and documents to stay here as long as I want. I don't have access to more opportunities related to the work and business I do.

How is the cost of the living crisis affecting expats in the UK? How can expatriates try to save money?

If you find yourself a good solution, a good place or a good deal as living in a hostel, you'll be alright. The biggest trouble is finding a good and cheap place that you can afford and like living in. Besides that, there is transportation, but that only applies if you want to use public transportation all the time or even drive (as the gas prices are going up), so you could consider a bike (if the weather helps, of course). I guess you can save lots of money by rethinking expenses.

What are your plans ahead?

My plans are: to do more sporting events. When I started, I came and went from one event to the next one as a volunteer. I didn't know any other way to work at the major sporting events, but that's changed. I discovered some other ways to make my plans more stable. After living in so many countries in the whole world, I'm focusing a bit more on the financial part. Because in the beginning, you don't realize that making money is important. I focused on having experiences, knowledge, connecting with people while having great networking around the world, but now is the time to focus on capitalizing on it, that's my plan ahead.