Bruno Fernandes: Remarkable rise of Man Utd star – by those who know him best

For all his development, Fernandes was far from being a star. He would leave Udinese for a year on loan at Sampdoria before, five years after departing for Italy, returning to his homeland.

Finally, in 2017, he made his first professional league appearance in Portugal, for Sporting.

“In Portugal, Bruno was never given much credit or column inches when he was at Sampdoria and Udinese, but then he came to Sporting and they thought ‘oh my,” Paciencia says. “I remember his first game for Sporting against Vitoria Guimaraes and everyone was like ‘wow, who is this guy?'”

In 2018, however, Fernandes and a number of team-mates terminated their contracts with the club after fans attacked players following their failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Peseiro, a former Real Madrid assistant, was brought in to stitch back together a broken team, with Fernandes showing his character by returning to the club and accepting the same wages as before, while others asked for increases.

“Normally when training finished, he’d have lunch in the club and then he would go to watch the U19s or U23s play,” says Peseiro. “He liked to see the matches more than the others. He wanted to see the new, young players and speak to them to learn who they are and what they are doing on the pitch. He liked too much to see football. He lives for football.”

Despite by now being a full international and attracting interest from clubs across Europe, Fernandes’ work ethic never changed. At Sporting he scored 39 goals in 83 league games from midfield but would spend more time on the training ground than any other player.

“He wants to train too much, he wants to train more than is possible,” says Peseiro. “The coach needs to say ‘Bruno, stop!’ because he wants to train every minute of the day. At the end of a training session he will want to stay out and shoot. If there is a ball there, he will want to do something whether it’s before training, during training or after training. He enjoys it so much.”