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Fred is a footballer reborn in Turkey.

Don’t adjust your sets: Mourinho has turned Fred into Kaka & has him scoring hat-tricks

Nestor Watach •

“I carry the piano for the artists to play,” Fred famously once described his role at Manchester United.

“I know I’m not the best player, not the most technical, but I give my blood and my life every time I’m on the pitch,”  the midfielder explained in an interview with Brazilian media back in 2022.

While correctly identifying his own limitations – you’re unlikely to hear Fred’s name crop up alongside Paul Scholes or Roy Keane in a discussion about United’s all-time greatest midfielders – it was precisely that selfless attitude that endeared him to the club’s supporters, as well as the man that originally brought him to Old Trafford back in 2018.

However, on the evidence of Fenerbahce’s glittering 5-0 thrashing of Rizespor, Fred has transformed from humble roadie to piano man extraordinaire. Call him the Brazilian Billy Joel and book him a residency at Madison Square Garden, pronto.

Fred looked every bit a midfield maestro superstar as Fenerbahce put Rizespor to the sword, opening the scoring after just 15 minutes and going on to complete a first career hat-trick just after the hour mark.

The first goal was probably the pick of the bunch, a long-range howitzer that cannoned into the bottom corner, squirming under the poor goalkeeper’s grasp.

But it was the second that really made us sit up and take notice; Fred linking up nicely with Allan Saint-Maximin, timing his run into the box superbly, clinically finishing into the bottom corner as if he were a Kaka rather than a Casemiro. Who’s had this bloke lugging about pianos his whole career?

He capped it off with an opportunistic poacher’s effort, on hand to slot home after the ‘keeper had parried Edin Dzeko’s goal-bound effort.

Mourinho shared a lovely moment with Fred after subbing him off, the pair of them barely able to wipe the smiles off their faces after securing three points with time to spare.

The Portuguese coach didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy working with Fred the first time around. Signed for a sizeable £47million from Shakhtar Donetsk in the summer of 2018, Fred represented his last big addition at Old Trafford.

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Mourinho had spent that summer moping about the lack of reinforcements elsewhere that term, setting a fed-up tone that they couldn’t possibly be expected to match – or better – their second-place finish from the season before.

Fred’s first half-season in English football was spent fighting fires as his manager did his usual sniping to the press. United sat sixth, 19 points off league leaders Liverpool, when Mourinho was sacked in December 2018.

But you look at the way the pair of them embraced after Fred’s hat-trick and you wonder if there might’ve been an alternate reality where they enjoyed great success together in Manchester. Fred’s unassuming, unselfish style is so often a hallmark of Mourinho’s favourite sons in midfield.

After the way that Mourinho repurposed his “if I speak” line following Fenerbahce’s Champions League qualifier elimination, or the nature of their underwhelming 2-2 draw with Goztepe last week, Fred might’ve feared a redux of their short time together once again; Mourinho skipping the boom part of the cycle entirely and putting down the accelerator straight for bust.

Let’s not be hasty, though.

Fred has been a great success at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium. The 31-year-old won the first 22 consecutive matches he played in last season and played an influential role in Fenerbahce reaching a club-record 99 points last term.

He’s won every Istanbul derby he’s featured in. Is it a total coincidence that Manchester United’s form fell off a cliff, struggling particularly in midfield, following his departure?

Mourinho has inherited a great Fenerbahce team, complete with a midfielder who looks right at home pulling the strings in the Turkish Super Lig.

With the addition of the electric Saint-Maximin, it looks as though they might just have everything in their arsenal to go one better and beat rivals Galatasaray to the title this time around.

 Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? We can’t wait to find out.

By Nestor Watach

Manchester United Fenerbahce Fred Jose Mourinho