10 facts about Rashford: Did you know that Manchester United’s goal record holder was previously in the Citizens academy?

Marcus Rashford is one of the biggest stars not only of Manchester United, but also of the English national team. But apart from his football career, he is also involved in charity and other activities. What you may not know about the 25-year-old striker?

Rashford started his football career at Manchester City

The now twenty-five-year-old English striker was born on 31 October 1997 in Manchester, England. Rashford began his footballing journey in Manchester City’s academy, but was then scouted by the Red Devils of United.

Rashford thus joined Manchester United’s academy at the age of seven. He made his debut in the colours of the famous Manchester club in February 2016 and scored twice in his first Premier League start.

Since then, he has established himself as a key player for the club, known for his speed and technical ability. He has so far featured in almost 340 games for United.

Half his family support the Citizens

While Rashford grew up playing football at Manchester United and eventually played for them, or still does at Old Trafford, he has revealed in the past that half of his family are Manchester City fans.

The youngest scorer in the Manchester derby

On 20 March 2016, Rashford became the youngest goalscorer in Manchester derby history when, at the age of 18 years and 141 days, he scored the decisive goal in his club’s 1-0 win over their city rivals. He scored the goal in the 16th minute of the match, United were coached by Luis van Gaal at the time.

He scored on his international debut

As well as being the youngest ever goalscorer in a Manchester derby, the England international scored his first goal in an England national team jersey on his debut.

At the age of 18 years and 208 days, he became the youngest player in the history of the English national team to score on his debut. Notably, it was a friendly match in 2016, when England beat Australia 2-1.

The youngest ever England player to play at the European Championships

On his debut at Euro 2016 at the age of 18 years and 229 days, Rashford became the youngest England player to make his debut at a European Championship. However, England certainly didn’t record any great success at this tournament.

They progressed from the preliminary group, where they faced Wales, Slovakia and Russia, with five points, one win and two draws from second place.

Unfortunately, Rashford did not score at this European Championship and England were eliminated in the eighth round, losing 1:2 to Iceland. Wayne Rooney scored the only goal.

Idols

Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are closely linked to Rashford’s career. These two players are his football idols.

Manchester United’s second youngest player with 100 starts

Rashford is the second youngest player in Manchester United history to reach the 100 starts mark in a Red Devils jersey, after Ryan Giggs. He reached this milestone at the age of 22 years and 92 days, which is a testament to his rapid rise and impact on the team.

Rashford holds the club’s goalscoring record with Dennis Viollet

The 25-year-old striker has scored in ten consecutive games for Manchester United at Old Trafford. That’s a record he holds with club legend Dennis Viollet.

Good man, MBE award

The English striker is a great footballer, but he is also undoubtedly a good person. This is evidenced by his extra-football, or charity and other activities.

He has been actively involved in a number of initiatives aimed at tackling child poverty and food shortages. In 2020, Rashford launched a campaign to extend the government’s free school meals programme for children from low-income families during school holidays.

What’s more, his campaign was hugely successful. In fact, the government succumbed to his persuasive arguments and denied its decision to end the programme, thus providing support to vulnerable families during the difficult period of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than a million children were affected by the programme. For his efforts, Rashford was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), having been one of five children of a single mother who relied on the paid lunch scheme as a youngster.

He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester

But in addition to this, in 2020 Rashford became the youngest recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester for his campaign against child poverty. Time magazine ranked him among the 100 most influential people in the world.

Rashford is therefore respected and admired not only in the football world but by the wider public. And that’s because of his commitment and willingness to help others.

Sources