Fenerbahce midfielder Souza was left impressed with the treatment he received from Paul Pogba when facing Manchester United in the Europa League this season.
The player has given an interview to ESPN Brasil this week, and spoke about the Old Trafford game in the group stage, which his team lost 4-1.
“Then he looked at me again and asked, ‘Are you Brazilian?’ I said yes, he smiled and said, trying a Portuguese: ‘I can see! You have a lot of quality, a lot of quality! (laughs)'”.
The Brazilian was very happy with the comments, and showed how proud he was to be complimented by such player: “Then we swapped shirts, he wished me good luck and congratulated me for the match.
“Pogba is a guy who, despite being a world talent, is very humble. I have his football as a reference and I’ve always watched him, even though he is younger than me. The fact that he praised me and enjoyed my work made me very happy. And he understands Portuguese very well, because he has several Brazilian friends and he loves our country.”
Fenerbahce ended up beating Manchester United in Turkey 2-1, and qualified in first place for the knock-out stage.
Manchester United will now be facing Saint-Étienne in the round-of-32, Fenerbahce are playing Russian club Krasnodar.
Paul Pogba is often showing how much he likes Brazil, especially on Instagram, where he constantly posts Brazilian hashtags. In an interview with ESPN Brasil recently, he even answered some questions in Portuguese.
