Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes Had Only One Weakness, Reveals Team Head Who Scouted Him

Former midfielder Mauro Borghetti has revealed that he found only one weakness in Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes when he scouted the player eight years ago.

Borghetti, who was the head of youth soccer at Italian club Novara, signed Fernandes for $48,000 from Boavista F. C in 2012. He recently revealed that while the Portuguese midfielder was technically and mentally sharp, the only flaw he found was his physical ability.

"His skills are mainly technical and mental. He must have worked on his physical abilities, which were the only things below average. Not from an athletic point of view, he's always had endurance and aerobic abilities. I speak of his structure. He turned 18 during the season he spent at Novara, he has now improved his physical structure," Borghetti recently told Football Italia in an interview.

Fernandes, who was with Boavista between 2004 and 2012, played for Novara for a year. The player became their most expensive sale ever when he moved to Udinese in 2013 for almost $6 million.

"We did a scouting job for Fernandes; we went to see the Boavista U19 squad playing that Saturday and he was the name we were following. He had the right age-range and the right potential cost, even if the fee was slightly beyond our means, around $48,000. It's nothing if you think about the player he is today but at that time he was an unknown player and signing him for that money was an important investment for a club like Novara. We took the responsibility," Borghetti further said in the interview.

The 25-year-old moved from Portugal's Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United in January. In no time, he became a vital cog in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side. When the club's captain Harry Maguire recently missed a Champions League game due to an injury, Solskjaer handed the captain's armband to Fernandes.

The former Novara midfielder scored 12 goals in 22 appearances in his debut season with Man Utd and he netted six goals in as many as 11 competitive matches in the ongoing campaign.