Ben Guest
Bruno Fernandes has revealed that it was a ‘dream’ to complete his January transfer to Manchester United, while discussing the ‘intensity’ of English football.
Fernandes was the big mover of the January transfer window, joining Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon in a deal which could be worth up to €80 million.
The Portugal international has made a hugely impressive start to life in English football, scoring three goals and providing four assists, picking up the Premier League‘s player of the month award for February in his first month in the division.
Speaking with Portuguese TV for a programme titled ‘The Magnifico Bruno’, the midfielder admitted he grew up dreaming of a move to Old Trafford having supported the club as a boy.
“Manchester was my dream club. My brother was a Barcelona fan, I was United,” Fernandes told Canal 11.
Happy to win my first #POTM 🏆
Thank you @EASPORTSFIFA and @premierleague 👊🏼@EASPORTSFIFA can i have a free pack with him? 🤪 @ManUtd pic.twitter.com/C2LjSvSmUR
— Bruno Fernandes (@B_Fernandes8) March 16, 2020
“My father worked in Switzerland and we went to a sports shop. He bought a Barcelona jacket and I bought a United one.
“At the time I could just dream, of course, but I was playing for Boavista juniors, it was a completely different reality. Now I want to do everything I can to make my mark here.”
While Fernandes was a prolific scorer and creator in the Portuguese league, the 25-year-old had yet to prove himself at the highest level, and he has admitted that English football is a different animal to what he has experienced before.
“English football is different from all others,” he said.
“In Portugal normally small teams close up. Here teams don’t close up when they come to play at Old Trafford. They want to press to take risks, to score goals, even knowing that United could recover the ball and launch a counter-attack. So the intensity is very high.
“In England, you live football in the pure state. There are whistles, applause and songs. We go into the stadium to warm up and it’s empty. We come back from warm-up, it’s half full, and when we come back to play, it’s full.
“The tunnel cancels the noise and as soon as we leave the tunnel there is a noise, something creepy. The Theatre of Dreams is something incredible.”
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