Bruno Guimaraes is a player who prefers to set an example on the pitch rather than off it.
His self-confessed love for chocolate might give Newcastle United's Sports Science team sleepless nights, but the player was probably up later than they were on the eve of one of the biggest games in the club’s recent history.
“I took my video console to the hotel and played Warzone with my friend in Brazil until 1am!” Laughs Guimaraes, speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo after being named the 12th best player in the Premier League this season by the magazine.
"I won’t lie – I was anxious"
“I went to bed, but it took a bit of time to fall asleep because – I won’t lie – I was anxious.”
The following day, on the pitch vs league champions in waiting Liverpool, there were no nerves or bags under his eyes.
“I did everything as normal,” he explains, revealing that he completely disconnected from social media to avoid seeing too much build-up to a match that opponents Liverpool were favourite to win.
“I connected to myself instead, thinking about the chance to put my name in Newcastle’s history books.
“I was like, ‘If this doesn’t happen today, I’m not sure when and if I’ll be able to achieve this title with Newcastle – I’m 27 and I don’t know if I’ll have another shot at this’.
“We respected Liverpool, but we didn’t fear them. We sought a second goal, and a third.
“My mindset was that we didn’t have any room to make mistakes, or to think that we could have another go next year. No way. It had to be that day.
“That is why I said in my team talk that we were about to step onto the Wembley pitch as players and would come back as legends. That game meant a lot to the fans, so it had to mean the world to us.”
Days earlier, Guimaraes, ranked at no.4 in FourFourTwo's list of the best central midfielders in the world right now, conducted a press conference alongside star striker Alexander Isak and described the Carabao Cup final as “like the World Cup” in a move designed to show Newcastle’s fans that he understood what 70 years without a domestic trophy felt lile.
“Generations of Newcastle fans were born, lived and died without seeing the club become champions,” Guimaraes tells FourFourTwo.
“The message they sent us was: ‘Bruno, this is our World Cup final’”.
After the game he returned to the dressing room, as promised, a legend, and the Brazilian’s phone blew up with messages.
Generations of Newcastle fans were born, lived and died without seeing the club become champions
Bruno Guimaraes
The day before, Alan Shearer had contacted the Toon captain. “He sent me a text one day before the final, wishing me luck and saying he’d be backing us the entire match.
“It was really rewarding to receive that kind of support from the greatest legend in the club’s history. It gave me the extra push to leave all I could on the pitch.”
In the aftermath, Shearer mentioned to fellow podcasters, Gary Lineker and Micah Richards, on an episode of The Rest Is Football, that Guimaraes and his teammates had "made my life".
But did he send the captain another message after the game?
"[I received] Nothing at all!” Claims, Guimaraes.
“Maybe he was too pissed, celebrating the victory, and had better things to do – haha!”
Interview by Caio Carrieri
