Revelation of the season on the side of Olympique Lyonnais, Bruno Guimarães could very well have started his European career on the side of… AS Saint-Etienne, the great rival of the Gones.
During the last winter transfer window, the Rhone club did not hesitate to put 20 million euros on the table to recruit the Brazilian international. Very good under the shirt of Atletico Paranaense and the Olympic selection of Brazil, the midfielder quickly took his marks. Arrived in February, the 22-year-old has directly established himself as an indisputable starter in Rudi Garcia’s team. In five games until the Covid-19 crisis, he showed the full extent of his talent, whether in the Champions League clash against Juventus (1-0) or in the derby against the ASSE in March (2-0). Suffice to say that on this issue, Jean-Michel Aulas does not regret having followed the advice of Juninho.
On the other hand, remorse is today on the side of Saint-Etienne. Because the BUT site tells us that Guimarães could have joined the Greens two years ago, when Araujo Ilan had proposed his profile to the leaders of ASSE. A member of the Saint-Etienne recruiting unit from Brazil, the former Saint-Etienne striker then caught a glimpse of the nugget of Atletico Paranaense. Except that in the end, “The Stéphanois decision makers of the time did not wish to follow up”, when a check for 5 million euros would have been enough to pocket the stake. But this is the law of the transfer window, with nice shots, but also missed shots.