Marcus Rashford will spend the season on loan at Barcelona and Man United will hope the Catalan giants decide to make the move permanent.
Rashford celebrates
Rashford celebrates
Marcus Rashford's Manchester United career is over, but there's still one big question left to be answered: where will he be playing his football come the 2026-27 season?
The season-long loan deal that saw him switch Manchester for Barcelona included an option to buy, with the agreed figure reported to be £26million.
Pundits and social media users love to revel in United's misfortune as former Reds players go on to thrive away from Old Trafford, but the fact of the matter is while players are still under contract at United and only on temporary deals elsewhere - like Antony in the second half of last season and Rashford this - the better they perform, the better it is for United.
If Rashford goes on to score 20 goals this season, regardless of whether United manage to fix their goalscoring problems, plenty of people will be quick to point out how they were wrong to let him leave. They weren't, and United will hope Rashford returns to his best in Spain to ensure they offload him on a permanent basis next summer.
The debate over Rashford's best position raged for a number of years, with some of the opinion that he could thrive as centre forward. It's clear he's better suited to a position off the left, but if he can convince Barca coach Hansi Flick that he can lead the line when needed, it only increases his chances of making Camp Nou his permanent home.
Rashford came off the bench to replace Robert Lewandowski in Monday's 5-0 friendly win over Daegu. He soon notched his first goal in Barcelona colours, converting a low cross from inside the penalty area to score his side's fifth of the game.
Speaking after the game, Flick said of Rashford: "He can play at No.9 or No.11. We changed it because we had to be careful with Ferran (Torres). We wanted to see how he adapted to the position."
Flick is clearly of the opinion Rashford can lead the line, and with Lewandowski due to turn 37 later this month, there's every chance Barca will be drawing up plans to future-proof their centre forward options.
If Rashford can keep performing and scoring as a No.9 for Barcelona, he'll give himself every chance of sealing the move he wants and United want next summer.
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