As Newcastle United star Bruno Guimarães this week spoke to the Portuguese media, he revealed that he could have played for one of their clubs.
The interview was given to Eleven Sports, and the 25-year-old claimed that when he left Brazil in 2020, he had an offer from Benfica.
Guimarães says that due to the talks between Athletico Paranaense and the Eagles collapsing, he ended up moving to Lyon.
“There was interest, there were very advanced conversations. Today I can say that I thought I would go to Benfica at the time. It was pretty much all together. And then, I think that Benfica did not accept some conditions imposed by Athletico and then Juninho Pernambucano got in the way, other clubs also joined, and Benfica ended up giving up on the signing,” Bruno Guimarães told Eleven Sports (via Notícias Ao Minuto).
“But at the time I was pretty excited about going to Benfica. Now, it’s hard to say. After everything that happened it’s hard to say, but it’s a great club in Portugal and it was without a doubt a great opportunity, but Lyon was without a doubt a great path for me, I was very happy there at Lyon. Maybe at Benfica I could have gone and everything went well or everything went wrong, I have no way of knowing, but what had to happen in my life happened.”
Bruno Guimarães left Athletico Paranaense for Lyon in a €20m deal. In two years featuring for the French club, he made 71 appearances for them.
It was in January 2022 that Newcastle went heavy for his signing, spending €42m on the transfer. The player didn’t take long to adapt to the Premier League, and already has 44 games for the Magpies so far.
The midfielder stayed out of Brazil’s call-up for the upcoming international break, and should continue training with Newcastle in the next couple of weeks. With the recent change of managers at the national team, it seems he’ll have to work hard to get his place back.
