Bruno Fernandes: Why I snubbed Saudi riches for “struggling” Man United | OneFootball

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes spoke to Wayne Rooney, telling him why he turned down a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia last summer in favour of staying at the club.

Transfer dilemma

Despite United finishing a lowly 15th place last season and losing the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur and consequently missing out on European football entirely, Fernandes still enjoyed a superb individual campaign.

He notched an impressive 19 goals and as many assists on his way to winning the club’s Player of the Month and Players’ Player of the Month awards.

Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Hilal identified Fernandes as their marquee target ahead of the Club World Cup and launched a strong push to lure him away from United. In addition to offering him a three-year contract worth around £200m, Al-Hilal were also prepared to bid £100m to snap him up.

United left it to Fernandes to decide his future. After weeks of speculation, he decided to stay at Old Trafford, much to the jubilation of supporters.

The Portugal international would later reveal that he was “hurt” by what he perceived as the hierarchy’s willingness to offload him. Fernandes is having another brilliant season. With five games left to play, he has eight goals and 18 assists to his name.

He needs just three more assists to usurp the Premier League record, which is currently held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne. There have been growing calls for Fernandes to be named the Premier League Player of the Year and Rooney is confident he will win the accolade.

The pair sat down for a chat on BBC and addressed a number of topics, including Fernandes’ contributions this term and why he snubbed a switch to the Gulf state last summer.

Fernandes makes revelation

Fernandes said about being in contention to win the Premier League Player of the Year award, “It’s a huge privilege to be in the conversation. You can say as many times as you want that you want to win trophies collectively. That is true. But these individual accolades are always nice on the personal side.”

“It is players voting for you. That has a different impact because you have been playing against them. If they recognise you as one of the best in the league, it’s a huge privilege.”

He said of last summer’s transfer saga, “I stayed because I thought I still had something that I can give back to the club. Obviously the Saudi situation, with the money… there was a lot. The good thing I have in my family is that my wife is pretty down to earth like me.”

“We’re very aware that we don’t want to be the richest person in the world. We just want to be the ones that have achieved the dreams they had and live a good life with their kids and trying to be as successful as possible.”

“The words of my wife were like, ‘have you achieved your dreams? Have you achieved everything you wanted?’ And that small thing she said made me understand that she’s on the same page as me. Let’s keep trying and see where this takes me.”

Fernandes continued, “I didn’t want to leave the club at the point where we were struggling.”

A report covered by The Peoples Person relayed that United have no desire whatsoever to let Fernandes leave this year.

The 31-year-old told Rooney that he wants to win the Premier League and Champions League.

Featured image Stu Forster via Getty Images

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