In the winter transfer window, it is said that it is mainly a catch-up market, that it does not change the face of a season. In summer, the leaders build their workforce, in January they tinker with it and repair the cracks that appeared on the facade in the fall. But sometimes it happens that a recruit changes your life. At Olympique Lyonnais, there is a before and especially after Bruno Guimaraes.
At 22, the Brazilian midfielder, disembarked from Curitiba and Athletico Paranaense on January 30, gave new colors to OL on the road to Lille this Sunday during the 28th day of Ligue 1. A victory and the Lyonnais (5th to six points from the Northerners, 4th) could still believe in a qualification in the Champions League very utopian before the arrival of Guimaraes.
In the space of four games, he has won over fans, teammates and observers. With him, Lyon dominated Juventus in the Champions League, won the derby against Saint-Etienne, perhaps sank at the end of the match against PSG in the semi-final of the Coupe de France (1-5) but dominated his opponent during one hour, guided by a Guimaraes size boss.
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Juninho's first success
He then returns the sentence of Juninho, during the presentation of the player: "I see him becoming one of the best midfielders in the world. " The new sports director was playing big. It was he who had convinced its president, Jean-Michel Aulas, to invest 25 million euros, he whose insistence had led the player's representatives to prefer the charms of the capital of Gones to the sirens of Atlético Madrid, Guimaraes' first choice, however.
" My coming to Lyon is 90% thanks to him, assures the interested party who signed up until 2024. Juninho was super sincere, loyal, and offered me a great career plan and I am very happy with it. " With Guimaraes, "Juni" regained part of the credit started by the fiasco Sylvinho, the friend placed as coach and abandoned at the first storm.
Another choice of the sporting director, Thiago Mendes watches from the sidelines his young compatriot dictate the Lyon game at the position of number six in front of the defense. While the first still digests his short move from Lille, the second proves that the famous adaptation period for a young South American player can also be optional.
When talking about their midfield, coaches like to talk about balance. In the case of Lyon, this one seems to have been found by a piece just brought back. In the heart of the game, Guimaraes plays simple, but never neutral. The Brazilian sees fast, always fair and makes his comrades better.
Placed higher as a torchbearer, Lucas Tousart projects more towards the opponent's goal with happiness. For his part, Houssem Aouar found in him the perfect technical complement, he who criticized – sometimes clumsily – his teammates for their slowness to serve him in the best conditions.
"We recruited him for this because Bruno is a technical player, capable, in small spaces, of playing with his teammates and making the game smoother", boasted his coach, Rudi Garcia, after the victory against Juve on February 26.
The 39, otherwise nothing
If OL are still learning to discover their rookie, Bruno Guimaraes is nothing new in Brazil. Captain of the Olympic team, the child from Sao Cristovao (a working-class neighborhood north of Rio de Janeiro) embodies the future of Seleçao he is about to find out as he has been called by the coach, Tite, for the next two 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
🇧🇷 @ brunoog97 is selected with the national team of Brazil which will face Bolivia (26/03) and Peru (31/0… https://t.co/F2GHlWVupZ
"Since he started with Paranaense in 2017, the question was not whether he would become international, but when, assures journalist Fernando Rudnick who followed the player's debut with Athletico for everyday In Gazeta do Povo. Besides, his first matches in Lyon are very well followed here. There is a big wait around him. "
And always the same number: 39. Lyon has asked the Professional Football League for an exemption while 30 is the maximum authorized for players under professional contract. Behind the totem figure is family history.
When the young carioca moved at 16 to the Grêmio Osasco Audax club, in the far suburb of Sao Paulo, his parents came to cheer him on almost every match Sunday. His father then swallows in one go the six hour drive between the two big cities of the country driving his taxi, registered 39. The son does not imagine flocking another number than 39 on his jersey.
Refusal of a contract in China
Guimaraes has since sheltered his family from need as he promised at the age of six. However, the player does not sell to the highest bidder. Winner of the Copa Sudamericana – the equivalent of the Europa League – in 2018, he grew up alongside the Argentinian Lucho Gonzales, the former playing master of Porto and Marseille. His club sets a clause of 40 million euros if ever a foreign club wants to offer its nugget.
At the end of August 2019, the Shanghai Shenhua places the sum on the table. If its leaders are sellers, the player refuses a departure to this Chinese football where he is offered a monthly salary equivalent to eight years of his modest emoluments with Athletico Paranaense.
"He is a smart boy and well surrounded, says Fernando Rudnick. He knew he would soon be courted by European clubs and he didn't want to get lost in an exotic championship. "
Until the final stretch of the winter transfer window, this club was called Atletico Madrid. “It was the most difficult choice of my career. I spent several nights without sleep thinking about it, he admits in a recent interview for Canal Plus. Atletico had my preference, but they never insisted on texting me or calling me. "
And then Juninho picked up the phone and played on feelings. That of a club which, from Sonny Anderson to Cris, via him of course, built its dominance on French football in the 2000s on its Brazilian imports.
