Marcus Rashford in action for Manchester United
Marcus Rashford in action for Manchester United
He is the south Manchester lad who has spent the last eight years living out the dreams of every United supporter.
Since bursting onto the scene back in 2016, Marcus Rashford has become a household name in English football. For a long period, the forward seemed destined to join the pantheon of United greats.
But it hasn't quite worked out as planned. After a promising start to his career, he has struggled to maintain consistency in recent seasons.
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On Sunday, new United boss Ruben Amorim left Rashford out of his squad for Sunday's Manchester Derby. Two days later, Rashford signalled his intention to leave United in an interview with the journalist Henry Winter, potentially spelling the end of his 20-year association with his boyhood club.
Manchester roots
Marcus Rashford was born on October 31, 1997, and spent the first few years of his life in the south Manchester suburbs of Withington and Fallowfield. He attended Old Moat School and lived on Saltney Avenue in Withington with his mum Melanie and his four siblings.
At the age of six, he started playing football for the now legendary Fletcher Moss Rangers, the remarkable Didsbury-based junior club which also nurtured the likes of Wes Brown, Danny Welbeck, Ravel Morrison, Zeki Fryers, Jesse Lingard, Tyler Blackett and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson. He spent around three years with the club before being picked up by United's academy.
At the age of nine, Marcus and his family moved to Northern Moor in Wythenshawe, where he attended Button Lane Primary School. In 2020, his former teacher, Simon Pyne, told the Manchester Evening News that Marcus used to help struggling classmates with their work and showed an extraordinary level of dedication given his age.
"He's more or less the same now as he was in school," he said. "He was just a genuinely nice, thoughtful, hard-working well mannered lad.
"He always thought of others. He was always very helpful in class. It's difficult to remember specific incidents as it was so long ago but I know he spent a lot of his time sat next to one of our more difficult pupils at the time and I know helped him quite a lot with his work.
"He was always very patient like that. Obviously he absolutely loved his sport, but he worked hard in everything he was doing.
"We do a residential in the Lake District every year and the year he came with us he asked me if he could set an early alarm. I said 'why do you need to do that, we wake you up' and he said 'I want to get up and do my training.'
"That was nine years-old. And every morning he was there up doing press-ups, sit-ups or whatever it was. I used to have to send a report to his coaches and I would tell them you couldn't have asked for a more dedicated child.
"I think it was instilled into him from an early age – remember where you've come from, don't forget it, don't leave it behind. And he hasn't done. In fact I believe he has a tattoo of the house he grew up in."
After leaving Button Lane Primary, Rashford went on to study Ashton-on-Mersey School, in Sale, alongside his fellow United trainees.
Earlier this year, Rashford took to Instagram to share a screenshot from Google Maps which appeared to show himself as a child waiting by the side of the road in his United gear in Wythenshawe.
Captioning the post, he wrote: "Button lane pick up point." According to Google Maps the image was taken in April 2009, when Rashford was playing for the United Academy, having first joined the club in 2005.
Rashford was so highly coveted as a seven-year-old he rejected Liverpool and Everton to join the club he supported growing up on the southern edge of the city.
From United breakthrough to £315k weekly wage
After being a shining light in United junior ranks, Rashford grabbed the opportunity to make a name for himself at Old Trafford when it presented itself.
His ascent to the United first-team is a well-worn story - as is his knack of scoring debut goals. A lifelong Red, Rashford made his first team debut as an 18-year-old, scoring twice against FC Midjtylland in the Europa League in 2016.
He followed that up with a brace in his Premier League debut against Arsenal three days later and also became the youngest goalscorer in Manchester Derby history with his winning goal at the Etihad Stadium in a 1-0 win.
His scintillating form earned him an England call-up in May 2016. It took just 138 seconds against Australia to become England’s youngest goalscoring debutant.
Just four months after making his United debut, he was then named in England's 23-man squad for Euro 2016.
Rashford debuted for Manchester United in the number 39 shirt before taking the number 19 in 2016 under Jose Mourinho to signify his instalment as a regular in the first-team setup.
Having firmly cemented himself as a key member of the squad, he later took the famous number 10 shirt in 2018 following the release of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
In his first three seasons of first-team action, he established himself as an integral part of the senior squad on the left wing and in attack. However, in recent seasons he has struggled to replicate the form of his early United days. Last season, he scored just eight goals in 43 appearances.
A regular for England throughout his career - scoring 17 times in 60 appearances - Rashford was left out of Gareth Southgate's squad for Euro 2024 earlier this year.
Explaining that decision, the former England boss said: “These are of course difficult calls. We're talking about players who are very good and who have been an important part of what we've done over a number of years. With Marcus I just feel that players in that area of the pitch have had better seasons, it's as simple as that.”
Rashford's woes have continued this season, scoring seven times in all competitions so far this campaign. The forward was dealt a further blow last Sunday when United boss Ruben Amorim dropped him from his squad for the Manchester Derby win over Manchester City
On Tuesday, Rashford delivered the bombshell news that he is ready to leave Old Trafford. The 27-year-old, who earns a weekly wage believed to be worth around £315,000, may not be easy to offload. His current contract still has more than three years to run, having only penned a long-term extension in the summer of 2023.
Since making his debut in the 2015/16 season, Rashford has netted 138 goals in 426 appearances for United, winning two FA Cups, two League Cups and the Europa League.
Rashford 1, Boris 0
Off the pitch, Rashford has fought tirelessly to gain free school meals for vulnerable school children. His campaign to ensure no child in need went hungry twice forced then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson into U-turns over government policy.
The Tories were shamed into providing vouchers to vulnerable youngsters during the holidays in 2020 by Rashford's efforts. The Government then made another U-turn by extending support during the holidays in November through a winter grant scheme given to councils.
The England forward maintained his drive for social change by forming a child food poverty taskforce, which has linked up with some of the UK’s biggest supermarkets and food brands.
Rashford urged people to write to their MP demanding an end to the 'child hunger pandemic', stating that 'devastatingly', child food poverty is getting worse.
Rashford, who relied on school meals as a child, has spoken openly about the struggles he faced during his upbringing and described how his mum Melanie went without to ensure her kids had enough to eat. His charity work saw him awarded an MBE as well as a Pride of Britain Award and a City of Manchester award.
Sticky situations include hotel room bust-up
In May 2020, Rashford announced that he was engaged to his childhood sweetheart Lucia Loi. The couple had been together since they were still at school, but briefly split in 2021.
They remained in close contact and eventually rekindled things the following year - with Marcus popping the question to Lucia during a trip to Los Angeles. However, less than a year on from announcing their engagement, Marcus and Lucia reportedly split once again in June 2023.
Since then, he's been spotted in some precarious sticky situations, including a 12-hour bender in Ireland that culminated in a fuming row with a French woman who was believed to be his girlfriend, the Mirror has reported. Onlookers reported that the footballer kicked her out of the £1,500 a night hotel room they were sharing in the early hours, after she allegedly accused him of kissing a woman in a nightclub.
He was said to have got a private jet back to Manchester at 5.30am, before calling into work sick and skipping a training session. In a statement issued at the time, a spokesperson for Manchester United said: "Marcus has taken responsibility for his actions. This has been dealt with as an internal disciplinary matter, which is now closed."
Rashford drew criticism from fans, with one video showing one shouting at him from the Stretford End, saying: "If you want to go, go!" The footballer could be seen getting agitated at the heckler, who was subsequently moved back to his seat.
'I want to go back to United'
Shortly after his unauthorised trip to Belfast, he was left out of the squad for missing training. Addressing the criticism in the Players' Tribune, Rashford stated: "When I make a mistake, I'll be the first one to put my hand up and say that I need to do better. But if you ever question my commitment to Man United, that's when I have to speak up."
Rashford's family knows the club was his dream from the beginning. The footballer has shared how his family sacrificed other life-changing offers even while they struggled financially because they believed in young Marcus.
The academy product was attracting plenty of interest as a youngster and rivals offered huge rewards if he chose to quit Old Trafford and make the move. Such offers included houses and cars at a time when his family were finding it tough, but his family's choice is one the footballer is forever grateful for.
He told The Players' Tribune: "When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I was getting a lot of attention, and we had all kinds of agents and clubs trying to pass things to the family. United still hadn’t signed me to a scholarship, and people were offering all kinds of things.
"A few clubs offered us life-changing money. We’ll buy the family a home, we’ll put cars in your garage.
"We’ll change your family’s life. At the time, my mum was working as a cashier at Ladbrokes. My brother was working for AA. They had every right to tell me, 'Just take the deal.'
"But they knew my dream was to play for United, so they never ever pressured me. I don’t know how many people know this, but I actually played two academy games for that one club to see how I liked it. I remember walking out of the dressing room and seeing my mum and my brothers, and they just asked me, 'What do you want to do? Stay or go?' I said, 'I want to go back to United'."