"The town here is very good," Evanilson explains. "In summer, it's a really hot town. Lots of people from other cities in England come to spend the summer here. The beaches are always full, the streets are packed, and the heat here is similar."

On the warmest days, the thousands of miles separating England from the samba nation seem to evaporate entirely. "In summer it's incredible, it gets up to 35C, and it's nice," he adds. "Sometimes, in summer, you can feel like you're in Brazil, in our Northeast."

Bournemouth has long drawn visitors with its sheltered microclimate, boasting seven miles of golden sand, cliff-top funicular railways, bustling pier amusements and lush Victorian gardens that sweep right down to the water's edge. It's a quintessential British resort, but tucked away in its residential neighbourhoods is a vibrant community that has helped the striker settle into English life.

Evanilson is a frequent shopper at Ola Brasil, a small Brazilian food store on Wimborne Road in Winton. When the footballer and his family first arrived and checked into a local hotel, the shop's owner personally delivered a welcoming feast of staples: rice, beans, chicken and farofa - the toasted cassava flour fundamental to Brazilian cooking.

Having spent his entire life by the ocean - growing up in Fortaleza before stints in Rio de Janeiro, Porto and now Dorset - living near the coast is second nature to him. However, the English Channel does have one notable drawback compared to the warm waters of the Atlantic.

"It's impossible to go in because of the cold water. Very, very cold," he admits.

Adapting to life in the Premier League has come naturally, but Evanilson learned how to handle distance and sacrifice long before crossing the channel. Leaving Fortaleza to join Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro meant a gruelling journey of 1,600 miles - a day and a half's drive to the opposite tip of Brazil.

"When I left [Fortaleza] at 13, I was a kid, I left on my own. Sometimes I wanted to go back," Evanilson said. "But my mother told me all the time: 'If you want to be a footballer, you have to face reality, you have to keep going. You're a good player, but this part off the pitch, you have to overcome it.'"

Jose Neto, the youth coach who brought him to Rio, recalled that the homesick teenager promised to draw a picture of his mother, Madalena, every single day to ease the ache of separation. That, however, made it all the more devastating when Madalena died suddenly in 2017 while Evanilson was still rising through the Fluminense youth ranks. Heartbroken, he contemplated walking away from the game altogether.

The drawing ritual never stopped. Today, the Bournemouth forward sits down to sketch with his young daughter, Maria Alice.

"Whenever I'm at home with her, we try to do some drawing," he says. "It makes me relax, it makes me forget some problems. And it's really nice to know that she likes it too."

Surrounded by family, finding the comforts of home on Wimborne Road, and firing on all cylinders in the Premier League, Evanilson has made Dorset his own - even if he prefers to admire the Bournemouth surf from the warmth of the sand.