India captain Shubman Gill meets Manchester United skipper Bruno Fernandes as both teams converge in crossover event

Indian Express

a day ago

In one of the most unexpected crossovers in the world of sports, the Indian cricket team and the Manchester United football team met recently with the convergence of stars from both teams yielding a lot of interesting tidbits. The two sets of players met at a sponsor's event and exchanged jerseys with the United players wearing India's and the Men In Blue kitted in the famous red of Manchester.
India skipper Shubman Gill shared his interaction with United counterpart Bruno Fernandes in a video on BCCI.tv.
'Big club. Never easy to be able to captain any big club. And to be able to meet him, talk to him, interact with him, was good to be able to pick his mind,' Gill said in the video titled Captains Unite(D).
𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲(𝗱) 😎
Shubman Gill 🤝 Bruno Fernandes
WATCH 🎥🔽 #TeamIndia | @ManUtdhttps://t.co/tQ7Ti1lzWZ
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 21, 2025
'When you grow up, you watch a lot of football, you watch a lot of highlights of World Cup matches. So it's the passion and intensity that comes to your mind. The way you (Bruno) take your penalties, that comes in our mind. It's fun, very lovely to watch,' he added.
'We were just talking about captaincy. How different it is to both sports and everything. It was a huge honour to meet him. Obviously, I know he just became captain and it's a huge privilege for him, huge honour and I hope he has huge success,' Fernandes said.
'I think when you talk about cricket, you talk about India. It is one of the biggest sports world wide. Very difficult sport, I find it very difficult sport. Big privilege for us to meet him and see all the players,' he added.
'Very exciting to meet top athletes of the world from another sport, get to know stories, mindset. When you step onto the field, more than what people expect from you, it is about you being able to enjoy your game,' Gill had said in another video.
Even head coach Gautam Gambhir and United manager Ruben Amorim discussed about their respective ideologies. Both coaches haven't had the best of times with their teams since taking over with Gambhir's red ball team losing 8 out of their last 10 Tests while Amorim has lost 6 of the last 10 games as united manager.
An epic crossover 🔝
Indian Cricket Team 🤝🏻 Manchester United#TeamIndia | @ManUtd pic.twitter.com/VNcovRIs5X
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 21, 2025
'It was a nice interaction about what his (Amorim's) ideology is towards team sport and what my ideology is towards team sport. The basic foundation of team sport is very similar, where I feel, it is the player that adapts to what the team needs rather than team that adapts to a certain individual, the culture which we want to build,' Gambhir told BCCI.TV.
Kuldeep Yadav, a football freak and a die-hard Barcelona fan who also follows Manchester United, spoke about Amorim's tactics.
'I was looking forward to talking to Ruben Amorim. I have followed him since Sporting (Lisbon). I asked him a bit about tactic, whether he would stick to 3-4-3 this season and a chance to chat with Casemiro about how I admire him as a player,' Kuldeep said.
He later took to 'X' and posted his photo with Amorim. 'Sharing football knowledge with the man who's redefining the game.'