At the weekend, ESPN Brasil’s Bola da Vez show featured Manchester United midfielder Fred.
Following last weekend’s claims from the English media saying the Red Devils’ dressing room had been divided, with Portuguese speakers in their own camp, the 28-year-old was quizzed about it.
Fred even had a laugh when responding to that question. Then he confirmed there’s a bigger friendship between players from Brazil and Portugal, with the likes of Alex Telles, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot. He also made it clear there’s no reason for them to be separated from the other footballers in the squad.
“The news here, they like fake news. There’s too much here. It’s a lie,” Fred told ESPN Brasil.
“It’s obvious that we speak Portuguese, we communicate, we have a nice friendship. I’m a good friend of Alex Telles, both on and off the field. I’ve known him for a long time. So obviously I’m going to be a little friend of his.
“But that doesn’t mean I won’t talk to Lingard, Rashford, Greenwood, Maguire, the other English people here. On the contrary. We have a super cool friendship here, a super cool dressing room, they’re all teammates. We’re always dancing in the locker room, whenever we have the team dinner. Now we’re not doing that because of Covid-19.”
Fred also talked about his future when quizzed about a potential return to Brazil. Hesaid he’s happy at Manchester United for now, and in case he chooses to go back, then there are two clubs who’d be more likely to land him: Atlético Mineiro and Internacional.
“Maybe in the future, I don’t know yet. I left Brazil very early, I had a very short career. I still want to play in Brazil. I didn’t play, for example, a Conmebol Libertadores. I didn’t have that privilege. I played one or two games of Copa do Brasil, a few Brazilian League games and then I left Brazil.”
Fred has a contract with United running until 2023, with an option for a further year.