"I thought I had landed in hell": Bruno Guimaraes' steep rise with the magic of the number 39

A first version of this article appeared in March 2023.

Arsenal paid €87.5 million to Newcastle United for Bruno Guimaraes. This makes the 28-year-old Brazil midfielder the second-most expensive signing in the club's history after Declan Rice. As at his previous clubs, he will also wear the No. 39 shirt at Arsenal. For him, it symbolises his roots and reminds him of the rocky road he travelled to become one of the best players in the best league in the world.

Growing up in Rio near the Maracana, he spent every free minute chasing a ball with his friends, but a career in football was never mapped out for him. Quite the opposite. While his father wanted to sign him up for futsal, his mother was not keen on football. She would much rather young Bruno became a good swimmer, as Guimaraes explained in a piece for The Players' Tribune in 2023.

His mother is said to have told his father: "No, no, no. I don't want another one like that in the house, it will kill me." So she signed Bruno up to a swimming club. For six months he went to training before coming home in tears: "Mum, this swimming! Seriously? I don't enjoy it at all. I'm sorry, but I have to play with the ball."

Ronaldinho was Bruno Guimaraes' idol

From that point on, he chased his dream of becoming a successful professional footballer like his great idol Ronaldinho. His mother worked in a motorcycle shop, while his father kept the family afloat as a taxi driver. "In Brazil, and especially in Rio, it's back-breaking work," Bruno said. "You work all day and all night. I practically only saw my father when he came on Saturdays to watch me play football." By then, the number 039 had already become etched into Bruno's mind, it was the number of his father's taxi.

At 11 and 12, Bruno had trials with the traditional clubs Botafogo and Fluminense, but each time they rejected him. He struggled badly with stage fright and was devastated that he was not allowed to join one of the big clubs. "But then my mother told me the story of Cafu and how he was initially rejected by practically every big club."

Then, at 15, Bruno got the chance to move to the youth academy of Audax Sao Paulo. It was a huge opportunity, but a difficult step for the family too: "I will never forget how my parents drove me for five hours to Sao Paulo in my father's yellow taxi. They left their only child in this big city with other teenagers they did not know, in an overcrowded dormitory with 18 bunk beds."

Getty Images

Bruno Guimaraes: Tough time at Audax Sao Paulo

At first, he cried every night, said the now 28-year-old. The dormitory also had uninvited guests. He said he kept an old mobile phone under his pillow. One night he reached for it. "But instead of the old plastic phone, I suddenly felt something hairy. It wasn't fluffy, it was disgusting. I grabbed a tail. I screamed so loudly. There was this fat rat sitting there staring at me as if it wanted to say: 'Hey, what are you doing in my bed?'"

As he jumped out of bed, Bruno banged his head on the bed and two more rats appeared. "I thought I had landed in hell," Bruno recalled. More than once, he said, he packed his bags to leave Audax. The only thing that gave him strength was his parents' visits on days off and at weekends. They always drove to Sao Paulo in the yellow taxi with the number 039 to see their son.

One conversation with Fernando Diniz proved crucial in the next phase of Bruno's career. The former professional and current Corinthians coach was Audax manager at the time. Bruno still remembered that conversation clearly during the first team's pre-season preparations. Diniz is said to have told him: "Bruninho, whatever you want to do in your life, you will be one of the best. Because you have dedication, and you are focused. (…) You have the soul of a great player." Even so, another year passed before Diniz played Bruno in the first team at the age of 19.

Bruno Guimaraes has 39 tattooed on his calf

From there, his career took off. Bruno moved to Athletico Paranaense in 2017, and at the start of 2020 Olympique Lyon then brought the robust and technically accomplished midfield organiser to Europe for a €20 million fee. Two years later, for more than double that amount, he became Newcastle United's first expensive signing after the Saudi takeover. After developing well with the Magpies and two World Cup appearances with Brazil, he will now play for Arsenal.

Throughout that rise, the 39 from his father's taxi stayed with him. Guimaraes not only has it tattooed on his calf, he also wears it as his shirt number: "When I arrived at Paranaense, I was on the phone with my father and we were talking about which number I should choose. I was thinking about 97 because I was born in 1997. But he suggested: 'How about 39? It's more than a number. 039 made everything possible for us. Our house, our food, our furniture and your football boots.'"

Bruno liked the idea and wanted to ask the kit man about the number. But he had already reserved a shirt for him. "I opened the bag and I swear: it was 39," Bruno said. He said it even made him cry.

Click here to read article