When a 24-year-old Bruno Guimaraes joined Newcastle United in January 2022, he was a squad player for Brazil and at that point had made only one start for his country.
A lot has happened since then, with both Brazil and Newcastle United.
Ten months after arriving at St James’ Park, Bruno Guimaraes went to the 2022 Qatar World Cup and played 67 minutes in two sub appearances as Brazil exited to Croatia in the quarter-finals.
Four years later he has been the key man as Newcastle United have qualified twice for the Champions League and won a first trophy in 56 years.
With Brazil he is also now a key player, starts every game and along with Vinicius Jnr was one of their two best players when getting a 1-1 draw against Morocco in the opening group game of their 2026 World Cup, Bruno getting an assist for the goal.
Bruno Guimaraes explaining to Brazil media outlet GE just how different things are now compared to 2022, when he joined Newcastle United and was only a squad player for Brazil: “A lot has changed in these four years. To be honest, it feels like ten years have passed in four. In my personal life I’m a father of two, I’m married, and in my professional life we’ve raised Newcastle United’s level; I’ve become one of the club’s biggest idols. I’ve matured a lot. I am very happy, I’m much more experienced. I think I was very hard on myself four years ago with things that don’t bother me anymore. So I feel like I’m in a very good place. At 28, I’m reaching that point, I think it’s the peak of a player’s career between 28 and 30. So I’m arriving at this moment in great shape and I want to make the most of wearing the national team jersey in this World Cup.”
Carlo Ancelotti has frequently talked about the important of the Newcastle United captain to Brazil, Bruno Guimaraes asked about that: “I feel flattered to work with a guy like that, who has won everything. From the first call-up, when we first talked, I already felt that I would be important to him…Carlo Ancelotti talked to me in a way that made me feel important, even putting me as one of the leaders of the group in meetings made me want it even more, made me want to be important. If you compare my level of importance from the last World Cup to this one, the expectations are different. I think it’s important for me. I feel flattered that a guy who has won everything has given me this vote of confidence, and I hope to play my best football. I think this season was very good [with Newcastle United], my season with the most goals, many goal involvements in the Premier League. So I feel ready, I feel prepared to play good football and live up to the expectations of the national team and the coach, who is giving me a lot of confidence.”
Bruno Guimaraes asked about his improvement on the goalscoring front, Newcastle United’s top goalscorer in the 2025/26 Premier League season with nine goals: “Man, I think I have been shooting better. To be honest, I’ve been hitting the target more often. I work with the Performance Sport team, which analyses performance, and they’ve proven this with the numbers. This is the season I’ve hit the target the most. Hitting the target more often means you have more chances to score. And I think I’ve also been very efficient with my shooting. I hope this continues, of course sometimes you’re well positioned, at the right time and in the right place, but I feel more experienced, maybe not even spending as much energy as Bruno did years ago to be better and more balanced when shooting, not being so tired at the moment of finishing.”
Bruno Guimaraes also revealing that he has taken a break from social media.
The Newcastle United captain following the example and taking the advice of Casemiro who said he was taking a break from social media during the 2026 World Cup so that it doesn’t affect his mental health.
Bruno Guimaraes: “I totally agree. I don’t think it’s the right time [to be on social media]. You can [still] use WhatsApp to talk to your family and friends but the most important thing for us is that nothing from the outside gets in the way. Or that nothing might inflate your ego. Everyone needs to be grounded and focused…follow Casemiro’s advice, which I think is very important right now, to forget everything, focus on ourselves, focus on our time. Use the time off the field to play something, be together, play cards, ping-pong, basketball, do things together and forget the rest. Because it’s only 30-something days, it’s a short time. I know many people live with social media these days, but if you can avoid it, it’s better. I think it’s important at this moment that everyone is on the same page, that we focus solely on putting the Brazilian national team at the top.”