After following in the footsteps of Ronaldo, Fernandes is the latest Portuguese player to take Old Trafford by storm.
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Bruno Fernandes has opened up on how Cristiano Ronaldo continues to inspire him after becoming the latest Portuguese player to take Old Trafford by storm. Just like Ronaldo, Fernandes also moved to Manchester United from Portuguese club Sporting Club. Revealing that he has always looked up to Cristiano from a very young age, the 26-year-old liked how his national teammate bounces back from a setback. “Growing up, everyone knows Cristiano was my favourite player,” Fernandes was quoted by the club’s website.
“I think it was a little bit of everything. When Cristiano began to take his first steps in the national team, it was in the Euros in our home country [Euro 2004], so I was nine years old. That year stays with everyone because we lost the final in Portugal, we saw him crying after the final, he was a young boy who was starting to shine and from there I started to watch him.
“It wasn’t because he plays in my position because that wasn’t the case, but it was the way he worked every day, the mentality he had, the capacity he had to give 100 per cent in every game at a high level, for me it was like a motivation, like you always have to do better. He was scoring goals every game, but game after game he was still trying to improve, get better.”
Conceding that Ronaldo also has bad games, Fernandes praised the Juventus striker’s mentality to come back strongly into the next match. “My mentality comes a little bit from understanding what sort of player you want to be,” he added. “Do you want to be that player who has a good season, and maybe goes up and down, up and down, or do you want to be the player who always wants to be at the top?
“Okay, you will have bad games for sure, everyone has – Cristiano has had bad games, 100 per cent – but the point is, coming back from a bad game. Coming back with the mentality that is, ‘okay I didn’t play well in that last game and I really need to do well in this one’. The mentality to do better day after day is really important for me. I’m improving a lot because of this, and that was my biggest motivation.”
