Bruno Fernandes has sent a tribute to one Real Madrid player who is now set to retire this summer, Manchester United almost signed him.
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes is often active on social media, sending messages to his teammates regularly. But now he’s sent a touching tribute to one player he’s very fond of.
The Portuguese midfielder has sent a message to Real Madrid superstar Toni Kroos, who has for a decade, been among the best midfielders in the world. The reason for his message is due to the German World Cup winner now announcing his retirement from football.
This was confirmed on Tuesday by Real Madrid, the legendary player will head to the Euros this summer in his home nation of Germany and upon the tournament ending he will retire.
Bruno Fernandes sends Toni Kroos a message
After the announcement of his retirement, Bruno took to his Instagram with a message for the retiring German.
Posting Kroos’ original post of him during the 2022 Champions League final celebration, Bruno added a message underneath.
He wrote: “One of the best in this generation! What a pleasure it was seeing you play all this years”, followed by a praise emoji.
This message is a touching tribute and shows how highly thought of Kroos is by his fellow professionals. It is also a message which demonstrates how classy the captain of Old Trafford is.
Given the career Kroos has had at Madrid, it’s interesting to think he might’ve ended up at United back in 2014.
Manchester United almost signed Kroos in 2014
Kroos has gone on to have one of the most successful club careers of his generation at Madrid, but he wasn’t always destined to do so. Breaking through the ranks at Bayern Munich, Kroos actually almost arrived at Old Trafford in 2014.
Under David Moyes, it looked like the first signing of the Scot’s second summer as United boss would be Kroos until things took a turn.
Moyes confirmed this explaining that a move “had basically been done” before the Conference League-winning manager was sacked.
After this, Louis Van Gaal arrived and as Kroos explained, “Louis van Gaal came in, which complicated matters.
“Louis wanted time to build his own project. I didn’t hear anything from United for a while and started having doubts. Then the World Cup started and Carlo Ancelotti called. And that was it.”
A feeling of what could have been at United, with a Kroos and Paul Pogba midfield pairing being an excellent combination.