Manchester United star shares a bold World Cup opinion about teammate Bruno Fernandes
Manchester United midfielder Manuel Ugarte has made a bold prediction: he thinks his teammate Bruno Fernandes won’t score any goals at the 2026 World Cup.
With the tournament coming up, lots of predictions are flying around. While many are pretty standard, some United players have shared their fun and surprising takes ahead of the event.
In a video shared on social media, United asked their first-team players about their World Cup picks. Of course, each player backed their own country to win the tournament. Then, they were asked to name some underdog teams. Joshua Zirkzee picked Morocco, Diogo Dalot went for the Netherlands, Senne Lammens chose Belgium, Fernandes picked Scotland, and Ugarte picked Ecuador as the teams to watch.
Next came the fun part—some wild or “rogue” predictions. Zirkzee said Curacao will win a game, even though they’re in a tough group with Germany, Ecuador, and Ivory Coast. Dalot predicted Colombia would make it to the quarter-finals. Goalkeeper Tom Heaton joked that his good friend Scott McTominay would get sent off playing for Scotland.
Ugarte didn’t hold back either—when asked for his rogue prediction, he said, “Bruno won’t score” during the tournament, and gave a cheeky smile.
Bruno Fernandes will be hoping to prove him wrong and bring his amazing club form to the international stage. He had a fantastic season at Manchester United, scoring nine goals and providing 22 assists, breaking the Premier League assist record.
Fernandes was also named Premier League Player of the Season and picked up both the FWA Footballer of the Year and the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year awards.
He’ll be aiming to score when Portugal kicks off their World Cup campaign against DR Congo next Wednesday. Portugal also face Uzbekistan and Colombia in Group K, and they’re seen as strong contenders to win the tournament this year.
Fernandes has scored 29 goals and made 26 assists in 88 games for Portugal, including two goals and three assists in his past six World Cup matches. Interestingly, his two World Cup goals came in a 2-0 win over Uruguay at the 2022 World Cup—the same game where Ugarte was a substitute and didn’t play.