Bruno's view on personal accolades

The Manchester United man is celebrating two years at Old Trafford and has been a superb signing from Sporting in Portugal.

There is much to admire about his work over this period and the facts and figures stack up when talking about his individual contribution. However, for the 27-year-old, the one thing he really craves is team success and the trophies that go with it.

"For me, the most important will always be the team," he told us in an exclusive interview to mark his signing anniversary. "Obviously, as a player, you want to have good numbers. I want to score goals and want to have assists. That is obvious.

"No player can say they don’t care about scoring goals or doing assists but I want to do that together with a good result. If we don’t get both, I will never be happy, I prefer to have a win than a goal or assist. This is part of football and we play a team sport so it has to be that.

"If not, I like to play tennis or whatever so I can play myself and by my numbers. For me, the most important is doing my best for the team. If I don’t score for as many games and we always get the three points, I will be happy anyway.”

Bruno has already won the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award twice in his time in Manchester and there is no greater testament to his contribution.

“Of course, I think it’s always important to win individual trophies," he said. "As a player, you always want to win the team trophies, the ones that count really, but obviously individual ones, for us, it’s really important to have these kind of trophies to lift you up. It gives you confidence, to keep working hard, keep fighting and understand much more will surely come to you. You have to keep your way, the best way you can. I think, if you get that kind of credit, you have to know that the expectations on you will be higher and higher every day.” 

He was included in the Premier League Team of the Year for 2020/21 and also won our Goal of the Season award last term, for his strike against Everton.

The no.18 has the best goal-per-game ratio for the club of any of the current United squad, narrowly ahead of fellow countryman Cristiano Ronaldo.

BRUNO GAMES/GOALS

2019/20: 22/12
2020/21: 58/28
2021/22: 28/7

TOTAL: 108/47