Marcus Rashford is the first Englishman to play for Barcelona since the great Gary Lineker.
On the evidence of his latest brace, Rashford is looking perfectly poised to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Three Lions striker and light up his first El Clasico.
He’s looking his sharpest in years. Real Madrid, be afraid.
“He’s very fast, very dangerous, and a good person,” Lineker said after Rashford’s signing in the summer.
“I hope he can show his level. There are a lot of games being played these days, and more starters are needed. And Marcus has great quality. I think he’s going to be a great signing for Barca.”
Lineker added that “the problem is Manchester United”, suggesting that players have tended to do better after leaving Old Trafford.
Those comments were put to Rashford upon his arrival.
He struck a diplomatic tone, stressing that he had nothing bad to say about his parent club, but admitted that the move was best for him and that he’s embracing a fresh challenge abroad.
“I think it has been an important part not only of my career but of my life as well, so I am grateful for the opportunity to play for them,” Rashford said.
“But football is the same as life, not everything goes as simple as you may have thought. This is my next step, my next chapter.”
There was a small period of adaptation, but Rashford hasn’t looked back since returning to the England fold in the September international break.
He’s scored or assisted in seven of his last nine appearances for Barcelona, while his well-taken brace against Olympiacos is timely ahead of this season’s first clash with Real Madrid at the weekend.
Both strikes were emphatically struck, reminiscent of his last great run of form, when he couldn’t stop scoring after returning from the World Cup in Qatar.
It’s now five combined goals and assists from just three appearances for Rashford in the Champions League this season. No other player has more.
Marcus Rashford bags his brace for Barcelona 💫
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/kZiJtKDPKB
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 21, 2025
El Clasico is the perfect stage for Rashford to announce to the world that he’s well and truly back.
“I remember the excitement of the game,” Lineker recalled, speaking to The Blizzard, of the build-up to his first Clasico in January 1987.
“I remember the papers were full of it. Just to put things into perspective, we have sport on the back of our papers here [in Britain] most days and it’s a reflection of all different sports, all different sides; in Barcelona alone there were two daily newspapers just purely about Barcelona Football Club. That’s what you’re dealing with.
“Weeks before the Clasico, building up to the game, you’ve got 40 pages a day in two newspapers, which shows the significance of it. It was just exciting. The players told me about the atmosphere and what it’s like in the stadium. And nothing disappointed.”
Nearly forty years on, some things never change.
The daily papers still dominate the sporting landscape in Spain. El Clasico has been the date everyone’s had circled in their calendars for months.
The major difference is that Rashford has grown up in an era of the internet, social media, Sky Sports, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ruling El Clasico. He’ll know exactly what this game means, long before his arrival in La Liga.
European football’s biggest glamour game now means considerably more to English audiences today than Lineker’s formative years, when you’d have to have read World Soccer to have a clue about what was happening in football overseas.
Lineker marked his first Clasico with an iconic, unforgettable hat-trick in front of 120,000 at the Camp Nou.
The new, spaceship-like Santiago Bernabeu doesn’t hold quite that many but it’s not far off – the largest capacity in Europe, at least until the Camp Nou reopens.
Rashford has an opportunity to follow in Lineker’s footsteps and write his name into the history.
On this evidence, he’s looking ready to take it.
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