Roy Keane made some pretty bold claims about Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes during Portugal’s World Cup group game against Uzbekistan.
roy keene
Roy Keane has rated Bruno Fernandes as the best in the world when it comes to picking the right passes in transition. Keane made a bold claim about the Manchester United star after assisting Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal for Portugal against Uzbekistan.
Roberto Martinez’s side were already leading 2-0 with goals from Londrao and Nuno Mendes, and the Al Nasr star made it 3-0. However, the goal came after Fernandes slipped the ball in close to the line and Ronaldo expertly slotted it into the top corner.
And reacting to the half-time goal on ITV, Keane said of Fernandes: “He’s by far the best player in the world for that!” Keane’s praise for the midfielder comes after he revealed he had a “nice chat” with the United captain earlier this month following their recent disagreement over his Premier League assist record.
Keane claimed Fernandes had said in an interview that he chose to pass rather than shoot as he chased the Premier League assists record, but claimed the Portuguese attacker had actually said the opposite. Mr Fernandes highlighted Mr Keene’s erroneous statements on his podcast, The Diary of a CEO, and also expressed his desire to speak with the 54-year-old about his misinterpreted comments.
There was then a chat between the pair on the Stick to Football podcast, with Mr Keane later confirming that the matter had been put to rest. He joked first. “He apologized, I forgave him, no problem, but no, it was a good conversation.”
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He further added: “No, I got a reaction after something we said on the podcast a few weeks ago and he reached out to me and wanted to talk…I called him and we had a nice conversation.
“It was a nice chat about little things, which was nice, because sometimes when we do podcasts and games, you think you’ve said something afterwards and you say something and it doesn’t come through properly and people get upset. And then he said he wanted to talk to me.
“And we had a nice, adult conversation. It was great. It was a nice chat. “I like to have boundaries with the players.
Bruno Fernandes has provided 21 assists in the Premier League this season (Image: Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
“I don’t want to talk to players and their agents every few weeks and I don’t want to go down that path, but I think it was important for me to speak to him because sometimes players might contact me.
“There was a lot going on, a lot of coverage. He’s obviously an important player for United. I’m an ex-United player. I really enjoyed this idea of communication and proper conversation. Hopefully, he did too. We talked a little bit about everything and I felt better after that.”
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