Jesse Lingard has dismissed suggestions he was a failure at Manchester United.
The former Manchester United midfielder has enjoyed a resurgence in South Korea, where he has embraced local culture and got his football career back on track.
Jesse Lingard was released by Premier League outfit Nottingham Forest in 2023, after an underwhelming season at the City Ground. He went from being a free agent to joining South Korean side FC Seoul in February 2024 on a two-year deal.
Taking a pay cut, it’s clear Lingard did not move to another continent for the money. He eventually got his career back on track through hard work and can still thank United for preparing him for the football world.
The 32-year-old left United at the end of his contract, in June 2022, after a 22-year association with the club.
It all started in United’s academy before Lingard spent time out on loan at Leicester and Birmingham – before making his first-team debut under Louis van Gaal in August 2014.
Another loan stint followed – this time at Derby County – before Lingard cemented himself as a key member in the United squad. He went on score 35 times in 232 appearances for his boyhood club.
Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Jesse Lingard chosen to play for Manchester United
To make over 200 appearances for Manchester United is a massive achievement.
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Lingard won the FA Cup, Europa League and League Cup before departing the club and he was part of the FA Youth Cup-winning side in 2011.
Speaking exclusive to Ian Ladyman for the Daily Mail, Lingard explained why he does not feel like he failed at United.
“I 100 per cent do not feel failure, I feel achievement,” Lingard said. “You just gotta look at my story from seven years old, a kid from Warrington making it all the way through. The percentages of that are like 0.2 per cent or something. I got chosen.
“You have to work hard. Go to digs and leave your family at 12 years old and move schools and be in a different environment. And I was the smallest. I was tiny. Sometimes I had to play down a year. So I’ve been through the mill, from a football point of view.
“I made my debut then got injured and was out for six months out and then came back. Was I going to play again for United? I didn’t know.
“A loan to Derby and others. At one point I had Newcastle on the table. I could have gone. I was debating it with myself.”
Sir Alex Ferguson gave Lingard reason to believe
Even though it was Van Gaal who handed Lingard his first-team debut at United, the England international owes a lot to Sir Alex Ferguson for instilling belief into him.
Lingard compares a career in football to a rollercoaster ride and credits Ferguon’s magic for helping him along the way.
“It’s a fight,” Lingard said. “It’s like a rollercoaster, especially being so young. And at the time you’re just thinking: ‘I’ve got to play football.’
“Fergie always believed in me. That was the only thing really for me. Sir Alex knows football. That meant everything, you know. For him to say when I was young that by 22 or 23 I’d be in the first team was really something and obviously that pretty much happened to the day.
“At the time I just thought: ‘is he magic? What kind of sorcery is this? You know what I mean?’
“I am happy and satisfied because whatever happened was for a reason. Scoring in cup finals, playing for my country, the World Cup, scoring at the World Cup. No one ever takes that away from me.”
It’s good to see Lingard enjoying the final years of his career and we wish him every success in the future.