Paris Saint-Germain tried to sign Bruno Fernandes before his move to Manchester United.
Former Parisian boss, Thomas Tuchel hailed the Portuguese magician who has scored 34 goals in 60 appearances for United.
“With my first sporting director in Paris, Antero Henrique, a Portuguese sporting director, and he knew [Fernandes] very well,” Tuchel told reporters.
“We fought hard to have a connection to him and to bring him to our team. I got made aware of him more in detail, so we watched more and more games about him and followed him and tried to be in touch with him to make it happen.
“Obviously, he decided [to sign for Manchester United] and I was never personally in touch with him, but we tried and he went another way. [It is] bad for us that we have to play against him.”
“The impact he has had since he arrived at Manchester United is indescribable and unbelievable,” Tuchel said.
“To come from Portugal, from a competitive team, a big club but not from the strongest league and stepping in a year to one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League and the strongest league in Europe and to have this kind of impact, I have nothing but the biggest respect for this guy.
“It is outstanding. He is one of the best midfielders in the world, attacking midfielders, and he has a huge, huge impact and to have this as a single person in football, you must be absolutely top level because this is almost impossible.
“But he has such a big influence on their game, on their attacking game and that it is a big key to defend against him, to be around him and close to him and he is a key player of Man Utd in a way that is outstanding.”
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