Bruno Fernandes played in unexpected position before switch aged 16

He is renowned as a creative, goalscoring midfielder these days – but Bruno Fernandes actually started out as a central defender.

In fact, the Manchester United captain played in the position, against his will, until the age of 16. And it was only a shortage of strikers in his youth team that led to him moving further up the pitch.

Fernandes, who spent eight years at Boavista in his youth, opened up about his late positional change as he answered the web’s most searched questions about him feature for Sky Sports. The topic came up when he was asked if he had ever played in any other position.

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“Oh my god, I’ve played in every position on the pitch,” he laughed. “I start as a centre-back until 15/16 years of age. It’s because I said to the manager 'I don’t want to be a centre-back any more'.

“I was 16 and I went to train with the under-17s because they were missing a player. It was me and another one from my age, my partner [at centre-back]. He was the aggressive one, I was the one more with the ball. The manager said ‘I prefer to keep the other one, he’s more aggressive, he’s stronger than you’.”

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However, Fernandes took that knockback as a positive. He added: “That was perfect for me. I went down to my age and the manager said ‘we have no striker’. I said [putting his hand up] ‘I’m here, I play as a striker’.

“The first training I played as a striker, I scored two goals. I’ve played in every position. Even in Italy [where he played for Udinese and Sampdoria], I played at wing-back on the left side.

“It’s only keeper I haven’t played but I went to the bench once when I was a second goalkeeper. I was 12 I think.”

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