Former Porto footballer, his former coach Novais is a cult hero in Portugal.

He crossed the road with former Portuguese and Barcelona midfielder Deco early in his career at Salgueiros, and he knew from the outset that Fernandes could follow a similar path and reach the highest level.

Not because he has the talent in this world - it was impossible to say then - but because he was determined to work harder than anyone else.

"He already had something for him..." Nova said. “You’ll see that he wants it too bad.

“He’s a kid who really wants to be a professional. He trained at Boavista at the same time on Wednesday – around 4:30 pm. So at around 2:30 pm he’ll train with our goalkeeper coach Petronilho, who will give him an hour of class and he’ll give him an hour before he goes to school.

“I would get there and ask Petronilho, ‘So, how did he do it?’ He would go, sir, he ran away, he worked, he just wanted to train. "He's passionate about the game."

None of this was caught by Bruno when it came to all positions on the court except goalkeepers.

His older brother, Ricardo, immigrants, worked as a hospital assistant in the UK, and Fernandes could have taken the same route in 2012.

He was 17 years old and had two quotes on the table: one from Middlesbrough and the other from Novara, Italy.

"The possibilities for these two teams end up moving forward with Novara; it's a best situation - the best condition. They have an academy where I can sleep and I eat, and my mom is more satisfied with me."

“In the end, it turned out to be the right choice.”

From winning the nickname "Maradona of Novara" to heading to Udinese and then reaching Sampdoria, Fernandez built himself and fulfilled his dream of bringing his father home from Switzerland.

Even though he was already captain of the Under-21 team in Portugal, he still flew among his fellow countrymen.

He didn't really name himself until he joined Sporting in the summer of 2017.

Suddenly everyone around was talking about the sensation of Alvalade, who finished the 2018-19 season with 33 goals and 18 assists, surpassing Frank Lampard's Chelsea record to get the most prolific goal-scoring season in Europe.

That was the call from Europa League rival Tottenham Hotspur and they will hope they won't regret "almost" in the "almost" moment in 2019.