And now, for the first time in history, that number and those colours will adorn the stage of the Alexandra Palace this evening when Diogo Portela becomes the first Brazilian to play at the William Hill World Darts Championship.

Portela, 29, proudly wears the No 10 and said: “My top is based on the Brazilian football shirt. The No 10 is usually the best players in a football team. I am the best of Brazil – but the only one here as well at the same time!

“When I moved to England, it was to pursue my dream to become a dart player.”

That dream becomes a reality as he takes on No 2 seed Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright and in this world championship of shocks, do not bet against it being one-sided.

Wright’s preparations have been disrupted because he has been suffering from gallstones but Portela is going to savour every moment on being on the most famous oche in the sport.

It is some turnaround for a man who knows all about life – and possible death – in a shantytown.

Portela, who is from Rio, said: “For the first 15 years of my life I lived in the bottom of a favela. Not inside but a building at the foot of the hills.

“All of my friends are from favelas and my best two friends still live there.

“I have been around their houses a lot and seen poverty face-to-face. I have never been rich but I have never been poor. I always had food and these guys didn’t. It was quite hard.

“I was never a guy that got himself into trouble as I always tried to avoid trouble.

“There were lots of attempted robberies. But I knew everyone. The drug dealers. Not friends with them but knew the names. So every time someone approached me with guns or things like that, I would say, ‘I am the friend of blah-blah-blah.’ They would say, ‘Okay. Sorry. Don’t say anything.’ Because if I did say something and told this person, they would kill this guy!

“I never had a problem but at the same time I was clever.

“Lots of friends struggled and they were forced to sell drugs. It was such a bad environment, very poor.

“They didn’t have the job or anything. So what did they do? It was the easiest way. They would spend two to three weeks selling drugs on the streets. They would come back, pay the rent for one year and that is it.”

Pursuing the darts dream, Portela and his wife Ariana planned to move to England and by chance befriended some English fans at the football World Cup in his country.

Today could be quite a day as they are also celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary.

He said: “At the World Cup in 2014 I had met a couple of guys. They were English. They were friends of my Brazilian darts partner.

“I said, ‘I am moving to England to play darts.’ The funny thing is that they play football and wanted to move to Brazil to play there.

“When they came back, after six to seven months in Brazil, I messaged them that ‘I need a place to stay. Please find myself somewhere in London.’ Only five days before the trip to London I found somewhere at one of their cousin’s house.”

And so his road to the Ally Pally began.

It was not all about darts, though. He learned English and has been working as a maths teacher at a school in Peckham.

And tonight will aim for the biggest numbers of his life.