Earlier Manchester United striker Federico Macheda has lifted the lid on what it was like to train with one of the club’s most gifted youth teams, though he feels a team-mate should have had a much bigger career.
The Italian – who now plays for Turkey’s Ankaragucu – broke through at Old Trafford with a memorable late winner against Aston Villa at age 17 in 2009.
At the time, Macheda was part of a hugely talented youth team, which also had futures on it World Cup winner Paul Pogbag and striker Danny Welbeck, although there was one youngster who surpassed them all: Ravel Morrison.
In an interview with Rio Ferdinand’s FIVE YouTube ChannelMacheda was asked which player in his age group he expected to have a bigger career than actually materialized, and immediately replied, ‘I’d say Ravel Morrison. He was a great, crazy talent.
“This man was a crazy man. He would get into the first team and start dribbling [past] everyone, and everyone was shocked.
‘When you saw him play, you expected him to be next’ [big] thing, you know, because he had everything.
“The Man United team were crazy players back then, so to come to the first team and do the things he did was just crazy.”
Ferdinand himself joined in: ‘I told you. You don’t understand how good this boy was!
“He drove you crazy. It’s crazy, everyone’s talking about [him] but it’s almost like you had to be there to really see and understand what he was doing – and not just in the reserves.
“Sometimes when you come back from an injury or something like that, you would start training with the reserves, he would do even more stupid things with the reserves. He sometimes played central defender in training!’
Macheda replied, “Yeah, he would just take the ball anywhere and do crazy things.”
While Morrison stood out, Macheda also felt it was clear that Pogba and Welbeck would have outstanding careers, while that same youth team spawned other less glamorous names who also enjoyed lengthy careers at the highest level.
He added: ‘I could see the talent of a few of them, especially Paul and Danny. I love Danny Welbeck, I loved watching him, the style he had for me was great.
“I played alongside him from the Under-18s and I could tell he had something special. Others were very good too, Robbie Brady, Danny Drinkwater.’
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