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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes said he will not discuss his future with anyone until after next year’s World Cup.
The 31-year-old will make his 300th appearance for United on Saturday, as the club attempts to end a run of three consecutive home defeats.
It’s a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that Fernandes has missed just 17 games since his £47m move from Sporting in January 2020 – and only three of those have been through injury or illness.
The Portuguese rejected a huge offer from Al Hilal in the summer, then rejected subsequent interest elsewhere in the Saudi Professional League and Europe.
Fernandes knows the rumors about his future won’t go away.
Sources close to him previously told BBC Sport that he does not want to move to Saudi Arabia next summer either, with major European clubs outside the English Premier League interested in the player.
Fernandes’ contract – which expires in 2027 with the option of an additional year – is understood to include a clause allowing him to join a club outside England for £56.68m (€65m) provided it is activated early enough.
However, Fernandes is not interested in talking about it yet.
“As I always said, I feel good here. I still want to achieve my dreams,” he said.
“I can’t speak for the club. I’ve seen a lot of people talking that I already have an agreement to leave next season. If the club had that agreement, it wasn’t with me. And I haven’t spoken to anyone.”
“My agent also knows how I work. If he wants to talk to me, it will be after the World Cup. Until then, I won’t talk to anyone.”
Fernandes spoke to a lot of people when Al Hilal’s interest first became public during United’s post-season trip to Asia.
The conversations with CEO Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox, as well as coach Ruben Amorim, his Portugal teammate Cristiano Ronaldo – who plays in Saudi Arabia – and his family all took place independently.
Everyone accepted the money talk, even for one of the highest paid players in the Premier League, it was surprising. The fee, expected to be more than £100m, was a record sale for the club.
But no one was pushing Fernandez out. In fact, Amorim was saying quite the opposite.
“He told me, ‘No, we want more players to help you become a better team,'” Fernandes said of his coach. “If we bring in some people and lose you, we will still lose something.”
His wife, Anna, was frank.
“My family feels very good here,” Fernandez said. “My children love going to school. They love the way they live here, even with the weather.
“Everyone is settled. We sometimes say that the house we have here feels more like our home than the one we have in Portugal.
“The first thing she said was: ‘Have you achieved everything you wanted to achieve at the club?’ She knows I didn’t do it.
“When I talk about not achieving my dreams at the club, a lot of it comes from what she said to me.”
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