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The best five moments from Bruno’s half-decade in red
Thursday 30 January 2025 11:00
Bruno Fernandes celebrated a significant anniversary on Thursday.
It’s officially five years since the Portuguese magnifico became a Manchester United player, with his signing from Sporting rubber-stamped on 30 January 2020.
Time flies when you’re having fun, and the 30-year-old has certainly had lots of that in a red shirt.
Over the course of half a decade, Fernandes has been directly involved in 165 goals across his 266 appearances, becoming club captain in 2023 and lifting two trophies.
From the day he put pen to paper, Bruno has been an integral part of the side, but if we were to rank his best moments at the club, which would make the top five?
Scroll down to find out, and take advantage of some limited-time offers while you’re here…
5. UNITED DEBUT
A goalless draw with Wolves at Old Trafford would not usually be an encounter to spend much time reflecting on, but with Fernandes parachuted into the side a mere 48 hours after being unveiled as a red, this fixture wasn’t a normal one. While the final product – from player and team – wasn’t quite there, United fans were given a mouthwatering taste of what was to come from the Portuguese playmaker, while Bruno was blown away by his new surroundings.
“Walking out the first time, it was just goosebumps,” he told the Players’ Tribune. “Everything is so much bigger, even than your dreams.”
4. PLAYER OF THE YEAR – x3!
The roll-call of Reds who have been crowned Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year is prestigious enough, but repeat winners are vanishingly thin in number. Fernandes was the runaway winner at the end of his first campaign, despite only playing for half a term, and retained the prize in 2021, following his best individual season so far.
He made it a hat-trick of successes last year and only former team-mates David De Gea and Cristiano Ronaldo have beaten his trio of triumphs.
3. LEEDS TREBLE
It’s easy to forget now that, for almost 18 months, football was played in empty stadiums, due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Restrictions were loosened in the summer of 2021 and 73,000 very excited people were at Old Trafford for a blockbuster opening-day clash – a first against Yorkshire rivals Leeds in front of fans for a decade. And Bruno bent the game to his will.
On a day where the unveiling of new signing Raphael Varane ramped the raucuousness up to another level, Fernandes replicated the stellar showings supporters had largely been forced to watch on television, scoring a hat-trick, in a game he still ranks as one of his finest.
2. BECOMING CLUB CAPTAIN
“It’s not something that you dream about, because that’s above your dream,” Bruno said, when news of his appointment as Reds skipper was made public, while the team were on tour in the United States.
Fernandes had previously worn the armband in the absence of Harry Maguire, and was clearly a leader for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag, but officially being named captain and following the likes of Bryan Robson and Roy Keane? That was, as he alluded to in New Jersey, an almost unimaginable honour.
1. THAT AFTERNOON AT WEMBLEY
The 2023/24 season clearly did not go as planned, but for 90-and-a-bit minutes in London last May, all was forgotten. United were clear underdogs against Manchester City in the Emirates FA Cup final, but a pretty-much perfect team performance laid waste to the pre-match predictions as Fernandes pulled the strings and led his side to an improbable 2-1 victory.
“It was our last chance to get something positive from the season,” our no.8 said, after the final whistle. “We’ve been here last year, we were not good enough to go up the stairs and lift the trophy, so we had to see them doing that. This season is the other way around.”
Although he will always be looking to add further silverware to the cabinet, the first trophy as captain – he lifted the Carabao Cup with Maguire the previous year – will forever be a cherished moment.
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Thursday 30 January 2025 11:00
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