Bruno Fernandes on shirt collection and respect for his peers

We spoke to Manuel Ugarte recently about his shirt collection and asked Bruno if he stores his batch at home as well. The Reds captain, hoping to land a second successive Player of the Month award after his fabulous form in March, provided the most detailed of answers to reveal just how big a deal it is to him.

“Yeah, I do,” he replied. “I have the first shirt of every first game that I do for every team that I’ve played for. Then I have the first shirt that I have been captain for the club. And the first shirt that I have been official as [permanent] captain. Then I have the first time I played in the Champions League. And then I have players’ ones and I have many.

“Ones from my mates, the Portuguese ones, from, I don’t know, [Joao] Cancelo, Bernardo [Silva], many others, Matheus Nunes from [Manchester] City. All of them, the ones from Wolves, I think I could make an XI with all the Wolves shirts! I have [Diogo] Jota’s from Liverpool and then, I think the most people would say, the most nice one I have is [Andres] Iniesta. That is one of the most special ones for me.

“I have a Cristiano [Ronaldo] one from the national team, when he scored a hat-trick against Lithuania. I got the shirt from him from that game. I have a [Lionel] Messi one, when I played against him in the Champions League for Sporting. From Italy, I have some – [Giorgio] Chiellini, [Gianluigi] Buffon. I have a [Edinson] Cavani one from Uruguay. I have [Paulo] Dybala’s. I have [Gonzalo] Higuain, I have more. I have a lot of shirts!”