Rashford’s Rise: To the Euros and Beyond

By on May 30, 2016

In just three months, Marcus Rashford has risen from the youth team ranks at Manchester United to the front line of the England national team, all while studying for his A-Levels. In the first installment of our multi-part perspective on his remarkable journey, we looked at the road to his memorable Manchester United debut against Midtjylland.  Below our focus shifts on the player’s rapid progress to the national team as they head to Euro 2016.

In the Premier League era, only fourteen Manchester United players have scored on their debuts.  Some legendary figures have gone on to have successful United careers, such as Paul Scholes, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer; others, however, slowly fade away after their bright starts, like Giuseppe Rossi, Chris Eagles, and Federico Macheda.

Marcus Rashford became the third United debutant to score a brace after netting twice in a 5-1 Europa League victory over Midtjylland in February, but the big question still loomed: could he replicate his promising start on a higher stage?

The answer came soon enough; he passed that test with flying colors just three days after the Midtjylland victory, scoring two goals within three minutes to lead United past Arsenal and assisting Ander Herrera’s winner.

Not three days after becoming a professional soccer player, he had four key goals under his belt.  Oh, and the following Monday Rashford was back in school, a pupil at Ashton-on-Mersey School in Manchester, which numerous United stars have attended.

Next, United had five games in the space of fifteen days. Rashford played in all of them but disappointingly failed to find the back of the net on a single occasion.  United’s form began to tail off as well, winning just one of those five matches and scoring only three goals in the process.  Lose to Manchester City and their hopes of a fourth-placed finish would begin to dwindle.

Yet Rashford once again stepped up to the plate when United needed it most.  In a most brilliant move sixteen minutes into the Manchester Derby, he ran Martin Demichelis ragged with a lovely fake and coolly beat Joe Hart with a low finish.  It was the winning goal of the game.

His next goal was in an FA Cup Quarterfinal replay victory against West Ham, a fantastic finish in off the post that has arguably been the best of his eight United goals. Rashford played all ninety minutes of United’s semi-final meeting with Everton and also started in their final victory over Crystal Palace a week-and-a-half ago.  He was energetic early on but forced off due to a knee injury in the seventy-first minute.  That said, he played a pivotal part in bringing silverware back to Old Trafford for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure.

Rashford added goals to his league tally against Aston Villa and Bournemouth as well, warranting his inclusion in Roy Hodgson’s provisional England roster despite only ever making five appearances for England’s youth national team, let alone earning a call-up to the senior squad.

If anyone still harbored doubts about Rashford, though, those were quickly abolished just a minute-and-a-half into his England debut against Australia as the forward volleyed home a clinical goal, making him the Three Lions’ youngest ever debut goalscorer.  Suddenly, it appears that he might just book a ticket to France with Daniel Sturridge struggling for fitness. The final squad will be announced on Tuesday.

On Sunday, he was handed a new £20,000-a-week long-term contract by United and his incredible ninety-three-day journey from Manchester United youth hopeful to England national team goalscorer might yet culminate in a spot at Euro 2016.  Before he can depart for the France, however, he is expected to be taking his A-levels exams.

Homepage photo credit: Nicholas Babaian from London [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.