Fran Fernández spent only half a season working with Bruninho at Karpaty Lviv, but the Spanish coach has been left in no doubt about what Maccabi Haifa have signed — and what still needs to change. "He's a special footballer, a very versatile player," Fernández told Sport5. "But he still doesn't fully believe in himself."
It is a striking assessment of a player Maccabi Haifa spent months chasing before finally landing him this summer. Bruninho, 26, signed a three-year contract with the Israeli champions in a deal Israeli outlets including Ynet and Israel Hayom valued at roughly €1.6-1.7 million, with a reported salary of around €450,000 a season.
Fernández, who took charge of Karpaty in January after replacing Vladyslav Lupashko, worked with the Brazilian through the second half of last season before his sale to Israel. Asked to rate him purely on ability, the coach didn't hedge: Bruninho, he said, is "the strongest footballer I've trained."
The coach's real point, though, was about the gap between talent and conviction. He said that if Bruninho builds genuine belief in his own qualities, he has what it takes to play in Spain or Italy before long — a suggestion that Maccabi Haifa may end up being a staging post rather than a destination.
Karpaty, for their part, are still working out how to cover for him. Fernández indicated the Ukrainian club's incoming recruits are being assessed partly on whether they can collectively replace the individual quality Bruninho took with him to Haifa Bay — a sign of how central he had become to the team.
Bruninho's route to Israel ran through Belo Horizonte and Lviv. He came up through the Atlético Mineiro academy, breaking into the senior side in 2018, before Karpaty signed him on loan and later made the move permanent for a reported €800,000.
He arrives in Israel off a productive stretch in Ukraine, where he established himself as one of Karpaty's leading attacking outlets over two seasons before Maccabi Haifa's interest turned serious this year.
Speaking after the move went through, Bruninho made clear what drew him to Haifa. "I'm very happy to be here. I think this is a huge opportunity for me," he said, according to Sports Rabbi — adding that watching the club's Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain last season made him "even more eager to come."
He was direct about his own ambitions, too, saying he believes "this could be the moment to bring trophies back" to Haifa through attacking, attractive football — a target that will only sharpen the scrutiny on Fernández's caveat about self-belief.
For now, Maccabi Haifa are banking on a player his former coach considers the most naturally gifted he has worked with. Whether that translates into results in the Israeli Premier League, and eventually beyond it, may come down less to his feet than to his head.
