The final verdict on Casemiro at Man United? Not a full club legend but he proved to be a class act

August 16, 2022. I’m in Spain and Spanish contacts are suggesting that Casemiro will leave Real Madrid for Manchester United.

“An outside chance of it happening is how I’d put it,” is the reply when I put the information to someone I trust inside United.

August 18, I get a call from that same source. “We’d like you to do the first interview on Sunday if possible. He doesn’t speak English.”

August 19, a press release arrives to confirm he has signed.

After weeks of negotiations, a fee of £60million plus £10million of success-related adds ons has been agreed for the then 30-year-old, whose contract runs for four years with the option for a fifth.

It is a deal that has been discussed a great deal since, so what was the thinking behind it?

“We’d lost a lot of senior players that summer. Scott (McTominay) and Fred were not natural leaders,” explains someone who was involved with the negotiations, speaking anonymously like others in this article to discuss private matters. “We started talking to his people early… along with others.”

United had spent much of that summer chasing Frenkie de Jong from Madrid’s great rivals Barcelona. Manager Erik ten Hag was confident in his ability to sign his compatriot.

Barcelona were prepared to do a deal since they needed the money. Two visits to Barcelona had seen negotiations. Presentations were made to De Jong by Zoom and he said that he’d like to play in the Premier League, just not in 2022. He wanted to win trophies in a packed, post-Covid Camp Nou. Oh, and his partner was very happy living overlooking the Med.

United didn’t just have one target. Casemiro had long been another and, unlike De Jong, he wanted to make the move to United.

The next few days were spent fixing the details so that the Brazilian could sign.

Monday August 22. Casemiro flew from Madrid to Manchester by private jet, I flew from Barcelona to Manchester by Ryanair and went straight to Old Trafford, where United were due to play Liverpool that night. After two opening league defeats at home to Brighton and a 4-0 hammering away to Brentford, big fan protests were planned against the Glazer family before the Liverpool game. The mood was febrile.

Three hours before kick-off, I went into the East Stand at Old Trafford and waited to interview Casemiro. He had signed that day and was due to be presented on the pitch later.

We were to do the interview at the back of the away end overlooking the stadium, but things were running late. So late that I feared Liverpool fans were about to be allowed into the section where we were planning to film.

I’d not met Casemiro before and when I did, he looked frazzled as you might being introduced to scores of well-meaning strangers in a different language at the end of a long day. He came through with his people stressing the urgency to get on with it. I needed him to unbend and talk.

I said the following to him in Spanish: “I’ve been to your city in Brazil”. That caught his attention. He wanted to know why and we began to talk. He relaxed and the cameras were rolling. As the shutters went down around the stadium amid fan protests, the Brazilian opened up. There was just one thing he didn’t want to talk about: his goal for Madrid against United in the 2017 UEFA Super Cup, he didn’t want to upset United fans, not that it would have done at all. He was just being careful.

Casemiro went on the pitch where he was introduced to the crowd. There was another surprise that night: United beat Liverpool 2-1 with goals from Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford. Scott McTominay played well and deserved to keep his place in the team, as he did the following Saturday when Casemiro made a 10-minute debut cameo at Southampton. Indeed, his first four league appearances were off the bench.

It wasn’t until October 9 that Casemiro made his first start, a 2-1 win at Everton. He looked fantastic, a level above those around him and settled into a team that rose to third. The surprise was that the man famous for clean discipline at Real Madrid was sent off. Twice. In a month.

There were many bright spots, memorably a goal scored in the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle. I recently asked to interview him again, his final interview. This time for the United We Stand fanzine. It was still in Spanish (though his English has improved and he spoke to Rio Ferdinand on the same day in English).

“That first season was incredible,” he said of a team that reached two cup finals. He said the Carabao Cup win against Newcastle was a highlight in red. “My goal against Newcastle wasn’t the most beautiful, but it was very important because it helped towards winning the cup, it helped the team a lot. At Wembley, too.”

His second season was not as convincing.

“I had that injury, the first injury of my career,” he explained. “I was out for three months. Then I came back and played 15 games out of my position. I did this to help the team because other players were injured”.

He received much criticism.

“I’ve played all my life in the midfield and then I played in central defence,” he said. “But that was only a moment and it passed. Last season we had the run to the Europa League final and this season has been very positive and I’d focus on that side. I think in general everything was incredible”.

Casemiro will be remembered with affection and approval. Not a full club legend since he didn’t play in legendary sides. But how does an insider who saw him work every day feel about him?

“He didn’t cover himself in glory around the 2024 FA Cup final when he spat his dummy out, but that shows even the best professionals can have a bad moment and management could have handled it better too,” is their opinion. The 2024 final was when Casemiro withdrew from the squad late with an injury after being dropped to the bench.

“But he came through that. Then he saw the Ruben (Amorim) situation as a challenge and instead of just sitting there and ticking over, he really pushed himself. That’s his default and the way he’s played and fought over the last two years has been incredible. This season he’s been amazing.

“He also shut down the discourse from the Jamie Carragher comment that he’s a weak link. He played to his strengths. Team-mates know that when Casa receives the ball he’ll play forward and connect the players, take risks. When it clicks, like his relationship with Bruno (Fernandes), those connections make them undefendable. It’s a worry when you take such a big and functioning player out of a team, how you replace him, as United now have to.

“His quality, his touch, his aura. He possesses some things that no data can pick up, the intangibles like leadership, character and experience. When he’s in the pitch he gives confidence, security and a winning mentality. Madrid had that for years. They’d be 2-0 down and still know they’d be coming back.

“When you objectively analyse Casa, you can see weaknesses. You think he can be pressed, but then he produces in big games. The set play goals were massive. He’s tall, but doesn’t get involved in the wrestling or theatrics. He attacks the ball cleanly, he’s a technical header of the ball who uses his body intelligently, he’s a magnet for crosses and that also rewards him with loads of goals.”

Casemiro played a neat 160 games for United over four seasons. He scored 26 goals. He was surprised to be told that many and smiled.

Yes, he earned a lot but he wasn’t a prima donna and there are countless stories of him helping other players. Like the one time when defender Victor Lindelof was feeling a bit down and in the gym alone when Casemiro, who was supposed to be in the main group, went to join him, train alongside him and encourage him.

“Come on,” he said, in Portuguese, since Lindelof spoke it. “Me and you. You’re getting back in this team. Don’t worry.” It helped.

Of course, Casemiro needed legs alongside him too but it worked well for the first season, less so in the second when Raphael Varane was not quite as effective as he had been and he asked Casemiro to drop back and help. Suddenly, it was Casemiro who was exposed and how he got hammered for it, but he recovered his position, his form, his status.

History will remember Casemiro well as a class act, never afraid to put his head in where it hurt. He and his family fell in love with Manchester United and living in England.

“At home, the only one who doesn’t speak English is me,” he explained. “The only one. My children speak English very well and speak English with each other. My wife, my wife speaks Portuguese with them, but they speak English, they discuss in English, they correct my English. Many times. Like if I say water (in an American accent), they say, ‘No, it’s war-ter!’ because I don’t pronounce it correctly. For me, it’s incredible when they correct me like that. But they do speak with a Manchester accent. And sometimes I don’t understand because the Manchester accent is a bit complicated.”

“Great guy,” explains another who worked with him daily. “Very quiet. Leads with presence. Adds a lot to the team, just his name does that. If we set up the team and ask players to do things which they’re not capable of, then it will expose them. In Casemiro’s case, expose the pace. We’ve got to think about what gets the best out of players. You must adapt and we did that. Imagine if we’d had him when he was 25?”