Bruno: Signing for Brighton changed my life

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Club legend reflects on his ten-year association with the club.

Charlie Hanson

2022-06-25T05:00:00Z

Bruno celebrates his first goal for Albion, that coming in a 1-1 draw with Bolton.

A 31-year-old Bruno came for a ‘life experience’ when he moved to the south coast ten years ago, but now it seems to have become more than that.

Whether he likes it or not, and whatever his future holds, the city will be with him for the rest of his life as he and his wife’s children are both Brightonians.

“My kids are 14 and 10 now, we came here when they were four years old and ten months old. They’re both Brightonians, they’re totally bilingual, but speak both English and Spanish with the right accent.

“You can see that they’re culturally different to my wife and I. How they express themselves is different because they think in English and translate into Spanish, it’s funny some of the expressions they come out with! My youngest makes up a lot of words.

“But you can see just the day-to-day things. When we go outside my wife and I might wear a coat, but the kids are quite happy in shorts and a t-shirt, but then when we go to Spain it’s the same, except they’re asking ‘are you not hot?’ they’re completely English.

“My son loves an English breakfast, he loves bacon and a fried egg. It’s funny for us, the main thing is they get the best of both cultures and it’s incredible. They’re so lucky.”

Their brave decision to leave their home country with two young children proved to be the right call in the end, according to Bruno.

“I was 31 and I wanted to come to England to play football. I was given this chance because I had some connections with the club – Vicente was here.

“I came for an experience, not just a football experience but a life experience. Ten years later I am still here loving it, my family have settled down here. It’s been a real life changer.”

The former defender initially signed on a two-year deal when he signed from Valencia in 2012, but ended up seeing out his playing days before joining Graham Potter’s first team coaching staff in 2019.

“Nobody could have said the club would be where we are now. It was the aim, that was the project when I first arrived, they had built the stadium and they were going to start working on a new training ground and grow as a club to get into the Premier League.

“It’s difficult to look that far into the future, but the vision of the club was there. For someone to say ‘you’ll go to Arsenal and beat them, you’ll beat Manchester United 4-0’, yes the vision was to get to this point, but sometimes you don’t think it’s possible.”