Manchester United have a new number 10 in the form of England International Marcus Rashford. The England forward made his return to club action after the World Cup against Bayern Munich on Sunday. He wore the No 10 shirt for the first time in the 1-0 defeat to the German champions and after the game, the Manchester United Twitter account confirmed it was his new squad number.
Rashford wore No 19 last season and takes over the jersey from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who joined LA Galaxy in March. Wayne Rooney previously wore the shirt for 10 years.
A Manchester United player from the age of seven, he scored twice in both his first-team debut (in the UEFA Europa League) after the warm-up injury of striker Anthony Martial and in his first Premier League match in February 2016 (against Arsenal). He also scored in his first Manchester derby match, his first League Cup match and his first UEFA Champions League match.
Rashford scored on his England debut in May 2016, becoming the youngest English player to score in his first senior international match.
Rashford’s performances in his first senior season led to calls for him to represent England at UEFA Euro 2016. Manchester United academy coach Nicky Butt dismissed these calls, calling them premature and possibly harmful for the player’s development.However, on 16 May, Rashford was named in Roy Hodgson’s preliminary 26-man squad for the tournament.
He became part of England’s Euro 2016 squad less than four months after making his Manchester United debut. On 27 May, he started in a warm-up match against Australia at the Stadium of Light, and scored the opening goal of a 2–1 win after three minutes, becoming the youngest Englishman to score on his international debut, and the third youngest overall. The previous youngest scoring debutant was Tommy Lawton in 1938.
On 16 June, he replaced Adam Lallana in the 73rd minute of England’s 2–1 win over Wales at UEFA Euro 2016, making his tournament debut at the age of 18 years and 229 days, becoming the youngest ever player to represent England at the European Championships, breaking Wayne Rooney’s UEFA Euro 2004 record by four days.
Eleven days later, as England were eliminated 2–1 by Iceland in the last 16 in Nice, Rashford came on as a substitute for the final four minutes and dribbled past three opponents, making him the best in that statistic for the whole team in that match.
Rashford scored his first competitive goal for the senior team on 4 September 2017, with the winning goal in England’s 2–1 win over Slovakia in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification.
He was named in the 23-man England national team squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.