Manchester United English forward, Marcus Rashford, has come out to tell who he really is.
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| Manchester United forward, Marcus Rashford. Photo: @MarcusRashford |
In the story titled ‘Who I Really Am’, Rashford said, “So 99% of the time, I can ignore the noise. But sometimes, certain lines get crossed, and I can’t help but want people to just understand who I am as a person”.
The England forward described himself as “an introvert”, adding, “I’m not a perfect person”.
According to theplayerstribune.com, Marcus Rashford said: “I don’t normally like to respond to things said about me. It’s not in my nature. I’m an introvert. I don’t even like talking about myself, unless I really know you. So 99% of the time, I can ignore the noise. But sometimes, certain lines get crossed, and I can’t help but want people to just understand who I am as a person.
I’m not trying to have a go at the media. I understand the game, you know what I mean? They’re not really writing about me. It’s like they’re writing about this character, “Marcus Rashford.” It can’t just be about me as a 26-year-old lad on a night out, or a lad getting a parking ticket. It’s got to be about how much my car costs, guessing my weekly salary, my jewelry or even my tattoos. It’s got to be about my body language, and questioning my morals, and speculating about my family, and my football future. There’s a tone to it that you don’t get with all footballers. Let’s just leave it at that.
I think some of it goes back to the pandemic. I was just trying to use my voice to make sure that kids weren’t going hungry, because I know exactly how it feels. For some reason, that seemed to rub certain people the wrong way. It seems like they’ve been waiting for me to have a human moment so they can point the finger and say, “See? See who he really is?”
“Listen, I’m not a perfect person. When I make a mistake, I’ll be the first one to put my hand up and say that I need to do better. But if you ever question my commitment to Man United, that’s when I have to speak up. It’s like somebody questioning my entire identity, and everything I stand for as a man. I grew up here. I have played for this club since I was a boy. My family turned down life-changing money when I was a kid so I could wear this badge.
“They want to talk about cars? Imagine being 5, 6, 7 years old and taking four different buses across town to get to training at The Cliff. That’s not an exaggeration. Ask my mum. Somebody had to take off work to go with me because nobody had a car in our family. Nobody even had a license. In them early days, it was two buses into town, then we had to walk through the city to get to the other bus out of town to get to Salford. Even in the pouring rain. Nothing really good to eat. Training for hours with my mum sat there waiting for me, not knowing a thing about football, just doing it out of love. Then the same back home. Just to chase my dream of playing for United. And that’s not me moaning. Not at all. I loved every second of it.
You know what the first thing they told us when we got to The Cliff?
“Express yourself.”
“Tony Whelan, Eamon Mulvey and Mike Glennie. Still to this day some of the best advice I ever got in football.
People will actually think I’m weird when I start talking about what United means to me. Because if you’re not me, then I’m sure it almost sounds fake. But you have to understand, when I was young, playing for United was everything. It was out of reach for us. It was hard to get there, and even harder to stay there. When I was young, they used to have these five-a-side tournaments all over Manchester where every player had to pay a pound to get in. It was all ages. You had kids playing against almost grown men. I’d always be asking my mum for a pound, because if you won the whole tournament, your team got all the prize money. It was just about enough for a ticket to Old Trafford. We were so young, but we actually won it a few times.
“To me, just being there was like… It was everything. We used to stay until everyone had gone, and the stadium was nearly empty, just looking around and listening. Old Trafford really has this sound to it. It’s like a surround-sound echo, and it’s so calming to me. For a kid who moved around a lot, it’s always felt like my home.
When something is inside you like that… It’s just inside you. Nobody put it there. It’s just there.
“When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I was getting a lot of attention, and we had all kinds of agents and clubs trying to pass things to the family. United still hadn’t signed me to a scholarship, and people were offering all kinds of things. A few clubs offered us life-changing money. We’ll buy the family a home, we’ll put cars in your garage. We’ll change your family’s life. At the time, my mum was working as a cashier at Ladbrokes. My brother was working for AA. They had every right to tell me, “Just take the deal.”
But they knew my dream was to play for United, so they never ever pressured me. I don’t know how many people know this, but I actually played two academy games for that one club to see how I liked it. I remember walking out of the dressing room and seeing my mum and my brothers, and they just asked me, “What do you want to do? Stay or go?”
I said, “I want to go back to United.”
“I said, “I want to go back to United.”
That was it. We got back on the bus. We bet everything on ourselves – all our chips. Looking back on it now, and seeing how many amazing young players never made it to the first team, it was a huge risk. But for me, it was the only choice. I remember around that time, we had had a family meeting, and I said, “If we do make it to play for United some day, I want to be able to look you all in the eyes and say that you’ve not changed. And I want you to look me in my eyes and say I’ve not changed.”
People think they know my family’s story, but they’re only scratching the surface. There’s a lot that people don’t know, because I don’t feel comfortable sharing it all while I’m still playing. But the struggle was real. It wasn’t a commercial. It wasn’t a movie. People say that I’m from Wythenshawe, but I had to move all over as a kid. I stayed everywhere. Hulme with my auntie. Moss Side with my nana. Chorlton with my brother for a while. Saltney Avenue in Withington. All over.
“But I wouldn’t change any of it, as hard as it was, because it molded me into who I am. I’ll still run into guys from where I used to live and we’ll just start shaking our heads and laughing like, “Do you remember those days bro…….”
“If you know – then you know.”
HC: Save it bro! Nobody will understand. Just tell your story and leave it there!! It’s good you shared to encourage and inspire!!
