Fans are just realising Pepe’s real name as Portugal legend, 40, takes Cristiano Ronaldo’s vote in Fifa Best awards

FANS are just discovering Pepe’s real name after the 40-year-old voted in the Fifa Awards.

Despite being the captain of Portugal in last year’s World Cup, Ronaldo did not cast his votes for Fifa’s best male player like the other international captains.

GettyRonaldo and Pepe are the two most experienced heads in the Portugal national team[/caption]

That duty instead fell for Pepe, who opted to vote for Kylian Mbappe, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema in first, second and third respectively.

But fans were less interested in who he voted for and more so in the name that was down on the official Fifa documents.

Instead of referring to him as Pepe, as he is commonly known in football circles, Fifa instead called him by his real name.

He was listed down as Kepler Ferreira, with Pepe just a nickname for the defender.

It came as a surprise for some football fans who had long known him only by his nickname.

On Twitter, one person wrote “Pepe??” when they saw Ferreira’s name on the document.

When another tweeter explained it to them, they said: “wtf I feel ashamed.”

Pepe has had and continues to have a long and distinguished career playing football at the top level.

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He began his senior career at Portuguese side Maritimo between 2001 and 2004.

The centre-back then left for Porto for three years when he began to establish himself as a top level defender.

From 2007 he then spent a decade at Real Madrid and made well over 200 appearances.

In recent years he has spent time at Besiktas and then returned to Porto in 2019.

Along with a number of league titles and three Champions League trophies at club level, Pepe also won the Euros with Portugal in 2016 and the Nations League in 2019.