Manchester City new boy Fernando is hoping that a successful season in the Premier League will bring an end to his international exile that stretches back to an incident with a referee while representing Brazil in the World Under-20 Championships in 2007.
After pushing over referee Albert Duarte in a game against Chile, Fernando was banned from all international tournaments for a year and has never pulled on a Brazil shirt since.
“I was very young at the time and it was a hot-headed moment. But obviously it was a moment in my career I learned a lot from. It put me in good stead for these days,” said the £12m summer signing from Porto, speaking at Manchester City’s Community Shield Media Day at Carrington, where he was helping out at a free soccer school.
“At the time you could say I was a child. Today I am a man so there is a big difference. That incident really helped me a lot. Now I always try to be calm and tranquil on the pitch and not speak back to the referee.
“A year’s ban was, in my opinion, harsh.
“I can’t really laugh at it if I’m honest because at the time I was playing really well, I was in the Brazilian team and it was something that really marked my career and brought me a lot of lessons.
“Obviously that has prevented me from going further in the Brazilian team. I don’t think that’s the only reason but I think it was a factor.
“Of course I still want to play for Brazil.
“In the past I used to have dreams about playing for my country but my objective now is really to focus on City, to help them to win titles. If it happens that I end up being selected for Brazil, that’s great.
“I’m hoping playing for City in the Premier League will help because the whole world watches this league. It is so strong and one of the best in the world. And I hope we can repeat what we did last year and win the title and also improve in the Champions League.
“Of course, it was painful to watch Brazil’s 7-1 defeat by Germany. Naturally I feel I could have made a difference but obviously I didn’t have the opportunity to play so we will never know. I could see what was going wrong out there. There were so many errors.
“Obviously we knew that Brazil could lose because Germany are such a good team but no one expected a 7-1 score line. That’s something that’s going to be marked in the history of Brazilian football,” he completed.
