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Famous Footballers Who Grew Up Supporting Man Utd

JeffFromHK

Full Member
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Oct 31, 2021
Messages
1,112
It's interesting to see that many of them playing for our rivals and we actually never considered buying them (with a considerable number of them playing for CHELSEA!)

Ben Chilwell
Christian Pulisic
Raheem Sterling
Son Heung Min (his Idols were unsurprisingly Ronaldo and Park)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
John Stones
Eric Dier
Séamus Coleman
Gylfi Sigurðsson
James Maddison
David Brooks
Joe Allen
Charlie Adams
Michael Essien (his idol was Roy Keane)
John Terry
Damien Duff
Aaron Ramsey
Juan Cuadrado
Benni McCarthy
Manuel Akanji

Players who may be Man utd fans:
Jordan Henderson - he never claims he supported Man Utd but his once said in an interview that his childhood idols were Giggs, Scholes and Beckham
Kasper Schmeichel - he never claims he supported Man Utd but his once said in an interview that his childhood idols were Giggs and Cantona

Though we actually signed some players that supported us growing up through our academy

David Beckham
Paul Scholes (he claimed he supported both Oldham and Man Utd as a kid)
Ryan Giggs
Nicky Butt
Neville Brothers
Wes Brown
Jesse Lingard
Jonny Evans
Marcus Rashford
Scott McTominay
Darron Gibson

While some of our academy players actually supported other clubs:
Darren Fletcher - Celtic fan
John OShea - Liverpool fan as a kid
Pogba - Arsenal fan
Ravel Morrison - Arsenal fan

You also may (or may not know) that some of our own bought-in players actually supported Man Utd as a kid:
Bruno Fernandes
Eric Djemba-Djemba (his idol was Eric Cantona , that's why he named himself Eric)
Liam Miller (RIP)
Dong Fangzhuo
Alexis Sanchez
Anders Lindegaard
Odion Ighalo
Lee Grant
Bastian Schweinsteiger (his favorite club was Bayern but Man Utd was always his favorite non-German club, probably due to his brother's influence)

There are rumours that Aaron Wan-Bissaka supported Man Utd as a kid but he actually didn't. His family were all Man Utd fans (so his family took pictures of awb in Man Utd kits) but he loved Arsenal.

Special Mention:
Gareth Southgate also claim he was a Man Utd fan growing up and he made one of this two dreams 1. Represent England 2. Represent Man Utd

Any more players you know who support Man Utd???
 
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CallyRed

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Mar 19, 2009
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11,241
Title reads like one of those ads you see on the bottom of some shite news website
 

JeffFromHK

Full Member
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Oct 31, 2021
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Callum Hudson-Odoi (another Chelsea player) is also a Man Utd boyhood fan
 

DomesticTadpole

Doom-monger obsessed with Herrera & the M.E.N.
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101,616
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Barrow In Furness
Sure Glenn Murray ( ex- Brighton now Sky pundit) and I am also sure Dean Ashton (ex Crewe, Norwich and WHU) said he grew up a United fan. Matt Holland the same.
 

lefty_jakobz

I ❤️ moses
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
3,648
Jack £100m Grealish, the Villa owner said something about Grealish wanting to come here when City bid for him but was told that a deal would only be possible if they took players and less cash in exchange.
 

ForeverRed1

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lefty_jakobz said:
Jack £100m Grealish, the Villa owner said something about Grealish wanting to come here when City bid for him but was told that a deal would only be possible if they took players and less cash in exchange.
Click to expand...
Google Jack grealish man United tweets. A fair few tweets years back of him tweeting about United and his disdain for city. He quickly tried to delete all evidence of these when he went there.
 

lefty_jakobz

I ❤️ moses
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
3,648
ForeverRed1 said:
Google Jack grealish man United tweets. A fair few tweets years back of him tweeting about United and his disdain for city. He quickly tried to delete all evidence of these when he went there.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have a few saved in Whatsapp chats. The one where he says anyone but City for the PL/CL (?) was funny, wound my City supporting mates up no end.
 

ForeverRed1

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England UK!
lefty_jakobz said:
Yeah I have a few saved in Whatsapp chats. The one where he says anyone but City for the PL/CL (?) was funny, wound my City supporting mates up no end.
Click to expand...
yeah, he was no doubt a United fan growing up. I guess for 300k a week and guaranteed trophies you’ll play for anyone though.
 

SouthMancRed

Cheimoon's Fault
Joined
Aug 14, 2022
Messages
506
Charlie Adam grew up supporting his local club, Dundee, one of the teams his dad played for. It's why he finished his career there. It's hard to believe given he's now a rent-a-gob for Rangers/Rangers Int stuff.
 

Man-United

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Joined
Dec 31, 2003
Messages
16,212
Jarrod Bowen
David Brooks
Moises Caicedo
Vedran Corluka
Cameron Jerome
Thomas Meunier
Emil Krafth
James Tarkowski
Phil Jagielka
Djed Spence
Adam Le Fondre
 

lsd

The Oracle
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Jun 5, 2016
Messages
10,923
Ronnie Whelan admits to being a die hard United fan yet won 13 trophies at Liverpool
 

Baxquux

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Aug 19, 2022
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Maddison's dig after last week's game re levels was too heartfelt to be anything but the sentiments of a (disappointed re. our overall, though hopefully somewhat arrested decline, Glazers notwithstanding, or spurned) fan. If Leicester go down, maybe he could be our Bruno standby whilst Hannibal/Shoretire etc mature.

Has childhood support genuinely affected many player decisions? Maybe Frenkie and staying at Barca, although I suspect it's 1 part the 'unfinished business at dream club' , another part the outstanding wages, and 3 parts fiancée refusing to move barring the club forcibly evicting him. Kalvin Phillips' family essentially threatening to disown him if he signed for us might be one example, although strangely Alan Smith (known to be from similar Leeds diehard family) seemed to navigate the move OK, so this could be a pretext for City move and greater chance of trophies whilst avoiding criticism for moving somewhere he'll likely play less.

Most players seem fairly loose with their allegiances, mirroring the ruthlessness' of clubs in disposing of them - even our predilection for rewarding mediocrity on the part of 'good servants' seemed more around the Woodward-inspired, loan-servicing related asset maintenance, essentially 'loading players in bulk with high-value contracts in order to inflate the value of the squad for audit purposes, than misplaced sentimentality or even brand protection, although maybe someone with proper knowledge of the finance side could speak to this...
 
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