Bruno Fernandes once had a coach who told him that if he wanted to be a top player, he should be a central defender, while if he just wanted to be a good player, he should be a midfielder. Bruno ended up choosing the latter and is now proving his prediction wrong and showing that sometimes it’s better to listen to one’s instincts. “I wanted to be the best out of all of them. And if I need to do a nutmeg on someone, I will do it – I don’t care,” he said in a Manchester United podcast in 2020. His devil-may-care attitude occasionally does not work in the United setup, where the forwards don’t always anticipate the audacious passes that Bruno attempts, resulting in the team giving away possession. But when he pulls them off, and it produces the required result, it’s like a breath of fresh air in the stuffy, mechanical world of modern football, where teams mostly play a certain way. Midfield maestro The ability to conjure up something out of nothing with just his flair is one of the reasons Bruno has not only evolved into one of the best players in his midfield general role in a Manchester United shirt but also moulded himself into the beating heartbeat of Portugal’s creative nexus. While Portugal’s World Cup campaign will march ahead with the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo as the face, the strings of their success will be wrapped around the fingers of Bruno and his midfield brethren. However, the journey to get here hasn’t been easy for the 31-year-old. After a rather forgettable 2024/25 season, where he played deeper under then-manager Ruben Amorim at United, he still managed 19 goals and 19 assists. United finished 15th and even let go of their chances at a silverware when they lost 1-0 to Tottenham in a drab Europa League final. In the attempt to force Fernandes from playing out of the deep, the Portuguese talisman lost a bit of spark, with frustration boiling over on the pitch. Things weren’t smooth off the pitch either. In an interview last December, he said that United wanted him to leave in the summer transfer window of 2025, which hurt him. 𝟮𝟵.º 𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗼 de Bruno Fernandes por Portugal 🎩🪄#VaiDarPortugal | @B_Fernandes8 pic.twitter.com/ueDSXQX3tx — Portugal (@selecaoportugal) June 8, 2026 “I could have left in the last transfer window; I would have earned much more money. But, from the club’s side, I felt a bit like, ‘If you leave, it’s not so bad for us’. It hurts me a bit. I was valued, and what values me most has to be my club, although lately I feel like I’m on thin ice,” he said to Canal 11 back then.Story continues below this ad But things improved when Amorim was sacked, and Michael Carrick came in. The 31-year-old was restored to his customary No.10 role, and unsurprisingly, in a free role, he thrived and dragged an in-transition United to third in the 2025/26 season. He also broke the Premier League assists record with 21 and was adjudged the Premier League Player of the Season. According to Opta, Fernandes created 136 chances in the season, the most in Europe’s big-five leagues. Also Read | Portugal beyond Ronaldo: Vitinha, Bruno creative heartbeat in push for World Cup An in-form Bruno could be ominous signs for Portugal’s opponents at the World Cup. The maestro will have more freedom in national colours with PSG’s Vitinha and Joao Neves for company and on occasions, Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva. This will enable Fernandes to go higher up, close to the opponent’s penalty box and lash in a wicked shot towards goal or look for the Hollywood pass, which might work better for Portugal than with Manchester United, with AC Milan’s Rafael Leao, Chelsea’s Pedro Neto and Juventus’ Francisco Conceicao the likely targets down the wings. Dual role With Ronaldo a fading force, having failed to score in Euro 2024 as well as the recent warm-up games vs Chile and Nigeria, Portugal might need Fernandes to fill in as a goal scorer as and when required. The 31-year-old isn’t really a slouch in front of goals either, having scored 29 goals in 87 appearances, even netting recently in the warm-up match vs Chile.Story continues below this ad Bruno, however, wants Portugal to do for Ronaldo what Argentina did for Lionel Messi in the 2022 World Cup: Win the entire thing. “I will try my best to make my country proud. Wrapping up this last World Cup with Cristiano winning it would be something amazing. I really hope we can make it happen, not just for Portugal, but for everything Cristiano gave to football and the world,” he had said to Wayne Rooney in a BBC podcast ahead of the World Cup. With Portugal playing DR Congo on Wednesday, it’ll be worth watching if Fernandes can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and win the whole thing or if it’ll be another false dawn, something that Bruno has seen firsthand at United, where hopes sometimes flicker before giving way to complete darkness.
Why Bruno Fernandes, not Cristiano Ronaldo, holds Portugal’s World Cup key
