Mason Greenwood: The teenage sensation

At the age of 6, the kid joined Manchester United, playing at the club’s development school in Halifax. After progressing through the academy ranks, he joined up with the Under-18 squad for the 2017–18 season, despite being eligible for the Under-16, and finished as top scorer of the Under-18 Premier League North with 17 goals in 21 games. In May 2018, Greenwood was named Player of the Tournament as the youth side won the ICGT Trophy in the Netherlands.

In July 2018, the boy traveled with the first team on their pre-season tour of the United States. On July 20, 2018, he made his non-competitive debut as a 76th-minute substitute for Luke Shaw in a 1–1 draw against Club America.

He also featured in a 0–0 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes three days later.

On 2 October, Greenwood signed his first professional contract with the club.[11] In December, he was selected by Jose Mourinho to train with the first team ahead of their UEFA Champions League match against Valencia.

He watched Mourinho getting sacked and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over. Ole substituted Ashley Young in the 87th minute and allowed him to play in the Champions League clash against Paris Saint-Germain in March 2019.

At the age of 17 years and 156 days, Mason Greenwood became the second-youngest player to represent the club in European competition (only behind Norman Whiteside) and the youngest ever in the Champions League era.

Four days later, he made his Premier League debut from the bench in a 2–0 defeat to Arsenal to become one of the club's youngest league debutants.

Two months later, Greenwood scored his first senior goal for Manchester United in a 4–0 pre-season victory against Leeds United. Since then, the journey has been brilliant.

In the Premier clash against FC Bournemouth on Saturday, Greenwood struck twice as the Red Devils scripted a thrashing 5-2 victory and kept the hopes of qualifying for the Champions League alive. Even though, Frank Lampard’s Chelsea leapfrogged them after the victory against Watford later on the day.

Manchester United fell behind to Junior Stanislas' opener but led at the breakthrough first-half efforts from Greenwood, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.

Greenwood grabbed the first of his two goals with a powerful left-footed strike to make it 2-1 before showing his two-footed prowess by firing home the fourth with his right, taking his tally to 15 for the season across all competitions. With 53% shooting accuracy overall, and even better this season, his shooting accuracy has been much better than the likes of Jamie Vardy, Sadio Mane, and Dele Ali.  

Despite starting as a midfielder, Greenwood’s attacking intent transformed him into a center-forward. Lying behind the striker, he aids the much-needed tempo to the game and his goal-scoring abilities give Manchester United a different dimension. Moreover, he is very good on both the feet and one of the few players in world football at present, who takes a free-kick with the wrong foot.

As Ole said, “He can play all of the front-three positions, or across the front four, as he can play number 10, number seven, number 11 and number nine. He’s a natural footballer with his left foot, coming in, but he’s got two feet and can play anywhere along the front. He’s just a natural. When he takes a penalty with his right, then takes a penalty with his left, free-kicks with his left, free-kicks with his right. He is almost what you’d call 50:50, maybe 51:49 left-footed”.  

For Manchester United, Greenwood has scored 8 goals until now – one with the right and 7 with left. He has provided one assist and completed 399 passes so far which is 13.76 per match. Again, his defensive qualities cannot be undermined as well – In 29 matches for Manchester United, he has 18 tackles, 6 shots blocked, 4 interceptions, 6 clearances, and 2 headed clearances.

After shining in the Theater of Dreams, Greenwood expects to shine for the Three Lions. For England national team he would add great value.

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 05/07/2020 Mason Greenwood: The teenage sensation  

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Faisal Caesar