Nottingham Forest and Wolves are among the clubs linked with a defender who made an impressive debut for Brazil last weekend.
You might have noticed Fabrício Bruno on Saturday evening – the 28-year-old centre-half, making his debut for his country at Wembley, was the large, bearded man who stood in the traditional captain’s place next to the goalkeeper and belted out the national anthem as though his very soul depended on it. He cut quite an imposing figure and certainly succeeded in imposing himself on Ollie Watkins and Phil Foden, locking down the right side of the Brazilian defence for large parts of the evening. Naturally, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest want to buy him.
That, at least, is what’s being claimed by Fabrizio Romano, who took to Twitter to suggest that both Premier League clubs are in the market for the Flamengo man, along with Atalanta and unspecified clubs from the Middle East. It sounds like he’s developed quite a long list of admirers quite apart from the new Brazil manager Dorival Junior. But if Wolves or Forest did make a bid for him, what would they be getting?
Romano suggests that a bid of €12-15m (£10-13m) would be necessary to secure his services and offer him a move outside of Brazil for the first time. Bruno’s whole career to date has come in his home country, playing for Cruzeiro, Red Bull Bragantino and Chapecoense (he was among the players loaned to them after the air disaster in 2016) before joining Flamengo, where he has shone and attracted long-awaited overtures from overseas.
As his appearance – he has the faint air of a henchman about to have his head kicked in by Jason Statham – implies, he is a strong player and his 6’4” frame makes him hard to get the better of in the air. A tough marker, he’s at home in a crowded six-yard box making sure he doesn’t get muscled out of the way in a rush for the ball.
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