Despite what has been a dismal season for Manchester United, one player has stood tall amidst the wreckage — club captain Bruno Fernandes.
The 30-year-old has 16 goals and 15 assists in 44 games in all competitions, his third-best season in terms of goal involvements since joining the club.
That only goes to show his level of consistency with the Portuguese never failing to hit the double-digit mark for both goals and assists since joining the club under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer back in early 2020.
He currently has 95 goals for the Red Devils and is 20th on the all-time top-scorers list for United. And the skipper has his eyes on going as high as possible on that decorated list.
Bruno has his eyes on the prize Up next on the list, in 19th position is legendary former skipper Bryan Robson with 97 goals to his name. That number should ideally be crossed before the season concludes.
The challenge now for the 30-year-old is to eclipse Andy Cole’s record of 121 goals, which places him in 17th position, and Solskjaer himself, who is on 126 goals and occupies 16th position in that venerable list.
“From Sandy Turnbull (101 goals) it’s a long way up. 121 for Andy Cole, then 126 for Ole. I hope to overtake them and it will be a good sign for us as a club that I’m scoring so many goals,” he was quoted as saying.
“Hopefully I’m going to go up and up. I hope to score as many as I can to help the club – and also help my teammates to score more and more.
“Obviously everyone always wants to score goals and wants to be involved. Every time you score, you obviously help the team to win games and it’s obviously very, very special.
“So it’s important, but it’s not the main thing in football. I’m not looking at the lists and only thinking about overtaking whoever.
Remarkable durability “It would be special. Every appearance and every goal at this club is very very special. We all know the feeling of scoring at Old Trafford.”
Not only his ability in front of goal, but also his remarkable fitness record that is praiseworthy with the former Sporting ace missing only one game due to injury in six seasons.
He has raced to 277 appearances for the 20-time English league champions, a milestone the versatile genius is extremely proud of and rightly so.
“I think 300 games for any club, it’s very, very special. I want to play as many games as I can, to always be available for the team and try to help as much as I can do to help the club and play more and more, I will try my best to do it.
“It’s always special – every game, every appearance. All of them are special, the ones I have done up until now, all of them have some special feelings. Obviously some good results, some bad results, some others that we wanted to do differently, but it’s always a pleasure to represent the club.”
Hopefully, he returns in top physical condition from international duty and can continue to bang in the goals in the games to come as United look to win the Europa League this term.
Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
