After Bruno Fernandes had imposed the shine on an excellent individual display for Manchester United in the 3-0 win in Leicester, the 3,000-copy Serenade section with a passionate representation of the song dedicated to their captain.
“He is our Portuguese Magnifico,” goes the last line of singing.
Magnifico, indeed. Fernandes had just scored his 16th goal of the season, which came after he had given his 14th and 15th assists of a campaign that threatens to compete with his best in a united shirt.
The 31 goal-oriented involvement of the Portuguese star is behind only Mohamed Salah (54), who almost pushes Liverpool to the Premier League title on his own, and the Erling Haland Halaan and the Manchester City (33).
Since he moved to Old Trafford in a deal with a value of a maximum of £ 68 million in January 2020, Fernandes has registered 80 assists in all competitions. Only Kevin De Bruyne, generally considered one of the best of his generation, has more with 90.
The second assist of Fernandes in the Cruise-Control victory in Leicester on Sunday brought him into the illustrious company of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Eric Cantona and David Beckham as the only united players scoring 50 goals in the Premier League.
The 30-year-old now also has 112 competition fault involvement, the 10th for the club, with 62 goals and has made 50 assists. In total he scored 95 goals and made 81 assists in 277 performances for United.
Even the most fiery opponents of the Portuguese – perhaps including Roy Keane – would accept that these are impressive figures, especially in view of the fact that Fernandes plays in a united team in a united team has described his own manager Ruben Amorim as 'perhaps the worst' in the history of the club.
His statistics are there with the very best game makers in the history of Premier League, even a Prime De Bruyne.
The Belgian has 118 assists and 70 goals in the competition for Man City, compared to 50 and 62 for Fernandes respectively.
The United Captain, however, has created the most chances of each player in the last 10 seasons of the competition with 505, 13 for De Bruyne.
An assist or goal is more valuable, but it is not his fault that he did not have the caliber of Spits that De Bruyne has to bring those opportunities.
Fernandes has also combined most goals and assists – 41, 24 goals and 17 assists – of every player in the history of the Europa League. He earns more than the second tournament in Europe.
But the influence of the midfielder on the goals of the united goals that go much further than goals, assists and opportunities created.
Fernandes is without a doubt the best player of United. He is the beating heart of the team. Everything goes through him, whether he is in the deeper role under Amorim or further ahead of no. 10.
His dedication cannot be questioned either. Leave in the recent victory on Ipswich, when United played with 10 men for almost an hour, it was a clearly exhausted Fernandes who had been chased back to stop a dangerous movement before trying to launch his own counterattack.
In the second half in Leicester, the Fernandes sprinted to cover his defenders after Foxes goalkeeper Mads Hermansen had tried to catch them by launching a long ball forward.
And in the dying phases of the 4-1 win over Real Sociedad in the Europa League in Old Trafford on Thursday, Fernandes was a gut to get into the box, his hat trick and seal progression to the quarterfinals in a season-saving victory.
Yet there are still those, even in the club's own fan base, who do not keep Fernandes in the same esteem and believe that his attitude does not fit the position of Captain.
Keane's most important complaint in his now notorious, explosive tirade about Fernandes – to which the Portuguese gave an almost perfect response after the Leicester match – was his assumed lack of leadership, a vision that was shared by a minority of United Supporters.
Yes, he can be Petulant. Amorim himself has publicly admitted that the player throws his arms a little too much and there are times when his behavior on the field ensures that even his biggest supporters are shivering.
But he leads in other ways. He leads by accompanying the young players of the club and by being the radiant light during the darkest days of the 20-way champions.
Fans could only fear thinking what could have happened if he had completely entertained the progress from elsewhere. An association without their Magnifico simply does not think about it.
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