Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes has admitted that his playing style is 'close' to United legend Paul Scholes, and went on to say that his Portugal teammate and former Red Devil Cristiano Ronaldo is his 'favorite player'.
The attacking midfielder paid tribute to the former Manchester United greats after enjoying a stellar start to life at Old Trafford himself.
Bruno Fernandes joined Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon for £67 million in January and soon established himself as one of United's most important players.
Fernandes has become one of the first names on Manchester United's team sheet and also developed into one of the leaders in the squad, dawning the captain's armband on occasion in the absence of club captain Harry Maguire.
The 26-year-old has claimed that his own goal-scoring exploits had reminded him of Manchester United legend Paul Scholes, who was also a midfielder that had the ability to dictate games for the club from the center of the park.
"For me maybe I'm closer to Paul Scholes. [He] was a guy who likes to be in the box, who likes to give an assist, who likes to score a lot of goals," Bruno Fernandes told the United Podcast.
"I think Scholes was one of the best midfielders in the world. For England, a lot of people talk about Frank Lampard because he scored a lot of goals of course, one of the best in England too, you have Steven Gerrard too."
"But I think Scholes is the one who makes more difference than anyone else. In the last generation, those three were the three best ones, and for me Scholes was the best."
Bruno Fernandes trying to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United
Bruno Fernandes has contributed an astonishing 18 goals in 33 appearances for Manchester United since joining the Red Devils. Manchester United have had a poor start to their 2020-21 Premier League campaign but he has still managed to score six goals in 11 games.
Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of Portuguese players to have played for Manchester United, the most famous being current Juventus talisman Cristiano Ronaldo.
Fernandes, who now plays with Ronaldo in the Portugal national team, claimed that he has tried to copy the forward's mentality over his career.
"Everyone knows Cristiano was my favorite player. I think it was a little bit of everything. It was the way he worked every day, the mentality he had, the capacity he had to give 100 per cent in every game at a high level. For me it was like a motivation, like you always have to do better," Bruno Fernandes was quoted saying.
"He was scoring goals every game, but he was still trying to improve. My mentality comes a little bit from understanding what sort of player you want to be."
Fernandes almost single handedly lead Manchester United to victory in their last Premier League game against Everton at Goodison Park, as he scored two goals and assisted one in United's 3-1 win.
The midfielder will be hoping to continue his form after the international break as Manchester United look to recover from a poor start to the season.