Fabricio Bruno has spoken out about his transfer saga that saw him extensively linked with Celtic during January.
The defender suffered relegation with Cruzeiro which sent the club into meltdown with attempts made to cut contracts and sell players to cope with a significant drop in income.
Most of the speculation came from Brazil with the player keen to publicise his availability but that could only be assured by going to court to get his contract cancelled.
Cruzeiro claimed that Celtic had proposed to take the central defender on loan with a view to a permanent deal but it seemed as if the player and club were grandstanding ahead of the court case to decide on whether the contract was binding.
Celtic never signed any central defenders in January with Bruno eventually moving on to Red Bull Bragantino with a contract that only runs until the end of December.
Bruno told The Sun:
I don’t regret what I did with Cruzeiro. I was a professional and had to think about my family. There was no proposal from them. The only way out was to go to court. Cruzeiro owed me four months in wages and ten months of image rights.
It all started when Celtic came to talk to me and I went to Cruzeiro together with my representative. But Cruzeiro refused to negotiate with them. It was a difficult situation and I had to look at the personal side of it.
Some fans called me ungrateful and mercenary, but it was the other way around. I tried to get the club some money with this transfer.
I tried to tell to them to negotiate with Celtic, but they would not. I had no choice, but to take Cruzeiro to court.
Celtic came back for me, but they had to pull out because I wouldn’t get a decision from the court until February 6 and that was too late for them. It was very unfortunate for them. I won the case, but I just wanted to get on with my life and my career.
With the current uncertainty over football it’s unlikely that Celtic will be renewing their reported interest in Bruno even though his current contract runs out at the end of this year.
