Name: Bruno Guimarães is in the middle
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Bruno Guimarães is in the middle

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Skip to main contentInside St. James’ Park, the chant picks up for a third or fourth time.We’ve got…. Bruno in the middle!A city that has always run on football dreams is serenading its talisman, a midfield artisan with a wide smile and a sublime first touch. There are other parts of the song dedicated to other players, but more often than not it ends right there on that single, slightly stunned note, a mark of the awe still settling across Newcastle at how its fortunes have changed.Bruno Guimarães arrived in the middle in January 2022. The club had just completed its takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund – a deal as protracted as it was controversial – and was languishing in 18th place in the Premier League. Following Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood, two signings that represented the mixture of ambition and pragmatism that characterised those early days, came a handsome young Brazilian international who had already been playing in the Champions League at Lyon and was attracting flirtatious glances from top clubs across Europe. Fans hadn’t been flattered by a signing like this since Michael Owen arrived, reluctantly, in 2005. But while that was an embarrassing case of unrequited love, the relationship with Guimarães has, like all true romances, felt easy from the start.“I said in an interview that I love Kinder Eggs,” the 25-year-old tells me, leaning forward in a seat high up in the stands of the empty stadium, two days before the match against Burnley. “Then in the first game, we play at home, they throw Kinder Eggs at the pitch – ‘Bruno, for you! For you!’” He has an infectious, goofy laugh. “I feel very, very good here. I feel Geordie. I love what the fans have done for me.”Everywhere he plays, Guimarães wears 39 because it was the number of the taxi his father drove when he was child. That helped endear him instantly to a working-class city. Then, of course, there is his doubtless world-class ability: a regular in the Brazil team, he can tackle, score and thread a pass from anywhere. A club with a history of worshipping number 9s has, in this new era, picked a cultured box-to-box midfielder as its hero.“‘Bruno G. 39' shirts have been the club's biggest seller for each of the past three seasons,” a spokesperson for the club tells me. In episode two of the Amazon Prime documentary We Are Newcastle United, chief commercial officer Peter Silverstone licks his lips: “Bruno is clearly one of, if not the, best midfielders in the league. He's also an incredible character, an incredible human being. From a commercial perspective, he ticks every box perfectly. People want to come and see him; people want to buy his shirts. Therefore, he will attract more fans to Newcastle. We can benefit from that.”"I am so emotional sometimes. I have to control this feeling inside me."It is a complicated time to be a football fan. We want it to be simple, because life is not. That is the function sport is supposed to play. Instead, for many Newcastle supporters in 2023, there is the need to balance the discomfort that the club’s primary owner is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, a country accused of serious human rights violations, with the undeniable fact that hope and joy has returned to their city. And whatever you think of the wider context, there is no escaping the fact this team is likeable: there is a deep spirit of joy and togetherness and a connection with the fanbase that was absent for 20 dreary years.No player embodies this change like Guimarães. Perhaps the biggest reason the 25-year-old has melted the hearts of grizzled fans and filled the playground fantasies of children around the northeast is the unique emotional openness he exudes. When he plays, smiles and scowls dance across his face in equal measure. He prowls and scurries one minute and giggles over a nutmeg the next. At Burnley, despite the team coasting at 2-0 up, he celebrates winning a throw-in in the middle of the pitch by roaring and pumping his fists.“I am so emotional sometimes,” Guimarães admits, a touch ruefully. “I have to control this feeling inside me. When I lose a game, I lose a game as a player, but also as a fan.” In August, this resulted in a rare PR blip when he responded angrily on Twitter to criticism from a Newcastle fan group account following a defeat at Man City. “I have to know how to control this feeling,” he repeats.Read MoreThe 28-year-old footballer rejected a contract at League One Cambridge to play for non-league Wrexham, but that’s only a fraction of his storyControlled feelings will be required on Wednesday night, when Paris Saint-Germain comes to town. The last time a ball was kicked in the Champions League at St James’ Park, Jude Bellingham was a newborn baby, Tony Blair was prime minister and Alan Shearer still had a good head of hair. After 20 years of moth-dancing up and down the lower reaches of the Premier League, including being relegated twice, Newcastle will host the French champions on a night where, incongruously, Dan Burn will lock horns with Kylian Mbappé. It’s the second game in its unlikely European adventure, after a cagey 0-0 draw against Milan at the San Siro.“To be honest, it was strange,” Guimarães admits looking back on that game. “For the first 20 minutes, the team was scared. Everyone was anxious. I think it’s a normal thing in life. But the experience was very good for us. After the game, everyone was happy to play for the first time in the Champions League, you know. I was happy for the boys. I think the next game against PSG, everyone will be a bit more relaxed.”Earlier this year fans were appalled and excited in equal measure to be drawn against Milan, PSG and Dortmund – about as stern a test as fate would allow – and Guimarães says the team was exactly the same.“We were all together at the training ground, watching. When the group came out it was a mixture of happiness, disappointment and concern. But we were actually all happy to be in the ‘group of death’. I don’t think we could have imagined a more difficult group. But we enjoy the challenge." It follows advice given to him by his predecessor as Newcastle's Champion's League talisman. “Alan Shearer is a very, very good guy. He said to me: just enjoy [it]. The football goes so quickly.”On Wednesday, Guimarães will follow his usual pregame rituals of always wearing the same pair of underwear, and touching his rosary beads – a nod to his deep Catholic faith. Jacob Murphy, the team’s designated DJ, will play a soundtrack that includes the Brazilian hip-hop Guimarães likes to listen to. And, he believes, they will win, “by one goal difference – 1-0 or 2-1. I am hopeful.”Guimarães may be the club’s best player and biggest commercial asset – with 1.7m Instagram followers, he is also its most followed player – but it’s a status he wears lightly. He arrives for our interview and fashion shoot on his own, with no entourage or agent in tow, just a translator he can turn to when he wants to go a little deeper with his answers than his English will allow. Earlier this year, he got married to Ana Lídia Martins, a nutritionist he met four years ago. I ask him what he thinks is the secret to a happy relationship.“This is hard,” he says, with a huge smile on his face. “Follow what your wife will tell you – that’s the best advice ever! No, I joke, I joke. I think it’s to share the good and the bad moments together. Be on her side always. Listening. The wedding was an amazing moment for us, though I was worried I’d be coming back fat. It’s been a very good year. Since I signed for the club my life has been like this.” He makes a gesture to show an upwards trajectory.Guimarães celebrated his goal in a recent 8-0 victory over Sheffield United by putting the ball under his shirt and sucking his thumb: afterwards, on Instagram, he shared the news that he and Ana were expecting their second boy.“I cannot remember my life before my son,” he says. “My life: it starts now, you know? It’s crazy. Sometimes in my head I think: how [did] I live so much time without my son? Of course, it’s a tough job. And two [children] is enough. But being a father has made me a much better person.”Bruno and Ana live with his parents, Dick and Márcia. They have also become fan favourites, ever since a video of them crying with joy in the stands after he scored went viral. Dick, in particular, who travels with away fans most weeks, gets mobbed in the stands. This tickles Guimarães no end.“People get drunk and hug him and kiss him!” he says. “It’s really crazy. He cannot go to the supermarket anymore; people ask him for a photo. I think he is liking it though.”Hearing him talk about his family, you can see why a player like Bruno – who wears his heart on his sleeve, who chases every ball, who signed when they were shit – is the first name chanted on the terraces, for simply being there, in the middle.“My manager in Brazil said to me: life is too short, the career of football goes quickly, so every game is a final,” Guimarães says, his first answer not to include a laugh. “I’ll remember this forever.”Photography by Ryan Mole.The Ballon d'Or shortlist finally settles the Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi GOAT debate once and for allLionel Messi's start to life in Miami could not have gone any better, especially when compared to Cristiano Ronaldo's Riyadh retirementBeckham director Fisher Stevens on leaving out the Qatar controversy and being scared of Roy KeaneThe filmmaker – and Succession star – on spending 30 hours with David Beckham, approaching Glen Hoddle and finding Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in NorwayEngland's partially sighted football team is leading the way for Harry Kane &amp; co.The Para Lions' march to the World Cup Final last month proves English football is in fine shape across the boardHow to actually (no, really) reduce your screen timeCreating meaningful boundaries with your phone is about using screens betterAt the Ryder Cup, the fans won it for EuropeSure, Europe's Ryder Cup win was exciting – but the real fun was found with the thousands of golf fans out for a Ryder Roman Holiday who proved to be pivotal in the final outcomeThe world is in Sam Curran’s handsAs reigning champions England prepare to kick off their defence of the Cricket World Cup, this is what Sam Curran's career has been building towards – and he couldn't be more ready10 Best smartphone for the perfect upgradeIn need of a new blower? 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Skip to main contentInside St. James’ Park, the chant picks up for a third or fourth time.We’ve got…. Bruno in the middle!A city that has always run on football dreams is serenading its talisman, a midfield artisan with a wide smile and a sublime first touch. There are other parts of the song dedicated to other players, but more often than not it ends right there on that single, slightly stunned note, a mark of the awe still settling across Newcastle at how its fortunes have changed.Bruno Guimarães arrived in the middle in January 2022. The club had just completed its takeover by the Saudi...

Bruno Guimarães is in the middle

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