Manchester United: Bruno Fernandes rejects $450m Saudi Arabia move

Bruno Fernandes is keen to continue playing at the top level of European football. Photo / Getty Images

Bruno Fernandes has rejected a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia, saying he still wants to play at the highest level and compete for major titles.

The Manchester United captain, 30, had been the main summer target for Saudi champions Al-Hilal as they look to strengthen before the Fifa Club World Cup this month.

But it is understood that Fernandes had reservations about playing in the Saudi Pro League and he has now confirmed he is staying at Old Trafford, in a major boost for United manager Ruben Amorim.

“It would have been easy to move there [Al-Hilal],” Fernandes said before Portugal’s Nations League semifinal with Germany on Thursday morning (NZT).

“I know the Portuguese players there very well. But I want to play at the highest level and compete for major titles. I can do that and still want to. I spoke to Amorim. He asked me not to go. Manchester United didn’t want to sell me.”

Fernandes’ agent, Miguel Pinho, held talks in the Four Seasons hotel in Riyadh last week with the possibility of leaving Manchester raised.

Al-Hilal are looking to make up to three signings this summer and had hoped to take advantage of United’s financial problems with a deal that could have been worth between £80 million ($180m) and £100m. The net salary for Fernandes would have been the UK equivalent of more than £1m per week before tax, which would have been worth more than £200m over the course of a long-term contract.

After years of losses, United’s financial plight helped prompt them to go on a post-season tour of Asia to generate funds. Earlier in the season, co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said they would have gone “bust by Christmas” without cost-cutting measures.

After their win against Hong Kong on tour four days ago, Amorim was asked whether it was Fernandes’ last game in a United shirt, and replied: “I don’t think so. I don’t know for sure. I think he wants to stay. He is saying no to a lot of things. The club can find other ways to make money. The feeling I get is that he wants to continue for sure with Man United, [but] you never know.”

Fernandes’ pledge of loyalty continues a good week for United. They have signed Matheus Cunha from Wolverhampton Wanderers to add to their attack, while Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford is another target, which the Daily Telegraph revealed last month.

Fernandes, the Portuguese international, signed for £47m from Sporting Lisbon in 2020, has been one of the few United players to emerge with credit during the club’s prolonged slump.

Former United captain Gary Neville welcomed the decision and told Sky Sports: “It’s significant. I think that there was an element of this situation that meant United getting that level of money, for someone of Bruno’s age, obviously, you couldn’t say that it would have been a bad deal.

“But, on the other hand, Manchester United’s star player – only player at times – for the last four, five, six years has been Bruno Fernandes. He’s so important,“ Neville said.

“The fact that he wants to stay, the fact that he wants to go through this and come out the other side, because it would have been easy for him at the end of this season to say, ‘Look, I’m done here’, will endear him towards Manchester United fans even more.

“To turn that money down at a point where Manchester United are at their lowest ebb and say, ‘No, I want to fight through this, I want to see it through the other side, I want to come out and achieve things’, I think it says a lot about him as a person, as a character. The club needs people who are going to run through a brick wall for them.”

The Premier League transfer window is open between June 1 and June 10 because of the Club World Cup and will then reopen on June 16 and run until September 1.

– Daily Telegraph UK