Marcus Rashford

Marcus Rashford  (born 31 October 1997) is an English footballer. He plays as a forward for Manchester United and the England national team. Rashford has been with Manchester United since he was seven years old. He made his debut for the first team in 2016 in a game against Midtjylland. He scored two goals in that game, and two more in his next game against Arsenal. Rashford also scored in his first game for the England national team in May 2016.

Rashford also campaigns on issues of child food poverty and literacy in the UK. Rashford was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire for his charity work. In addition, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester.

Club career

Early life and career 
Marcus Rashford was born in Wythenshawe, a town in south Manchester. He started playing football at the age of five for Fletcher Moss Rangers. When he was seven, Rashford started at the pre-academy program at Manchester United. Rashford was playing with the Manchester United under-18 team when he got a call to the first-team.

Rashford has said that the Brazilian footballer Ronaldo was his idol growing up.

Manchester United first team

2015-16 season: debut 
Rashford was on the bench on 21 November 2015 when Manchester United won 2-1 against Watford. His first start was against Midtjylland in the UEFA Europa League. Anthony Martial was injured in the warm-up to that game, and Rashford replaced him in the starting team. Rashford scored two goals in the game and United won 5-1. Three days later, he started in the game vs Arsenal. In that game, he scored two more goals and provided an assist. United won 3-2. In the 2015-16 season, Rashford scored a total 8 goals in 18 appearances, and won the FA Cup.

2016-17 season 
Marcus Rashford took number 19 for the new season. Rashford won the EFL Cup with Manchester United in 2017. Rashford scored the crucial winning goal in the Europa League quarter-final. He also started in the Europa League final. Manchester United won 2-0 against Ajax to win the trophy. In total, Rashford scored 11 goals and made 6 assists in the 16/17 season.

2017-18 season 
Rashford scored against Basel in his UEFA Champions League debut on 12 September. With that goal, he had scored in his first appearances in six different competitions. He scored 13 goals in 52 appearances in the 2017-18 season.

2018-19 season 
Rashford got the number 10 shirt after Zlatan Ibrahimović left Manchester United. Rashford had a successful season, scoring 13 goals and assisting 9. Rashford helped Manchester United reach the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. United defeated PSG in the process, with Rashford scoring the decisive goal.

2019-20 season 
The 2019-20 season was Rashford's best season by stats so far. In total, Rashford scored 22 goals including 17 in the Premier League. During the season, he struggled with a back injury. This limited his total game time.

2020-21 season 
Rashford scored 21 club goals in the 2020-21 season and made 15 assists. He enjoyed a particularly good goal-scoring run in the UEFA Champions League. In that competition, he has scored 6 goals in 6 appearances. Rashford was selected for England national team squad in Euro 2021.

Style of play 
Marcus Rashford plays either as a center forward or a wide forward. Rashford has said that he prefers playing as a left winger. Rashford uses his speed and dribbling to play direct football. These qualities make him more effective on the wings.

Personal life

Charity and activism 
Rashford has teamed up with poverty and food waste charity FareShare to provide meals to poor schoolchildren in the Greater Manchester area. Because of COVID-19 related lockdowns, schoolchildren were not receiving free school meals during this time. Eventually, the charity was able to raise enough money to reach four million children across the country. 

On 15 June 2020, Rashford wrote an open letter calling for the UK government to end child poverty. Bowing to the building pressure, the government extended free school meals for children during summer holidays. On 1 September, Rashford collaborated with multiple parties to create Child Food Poverty Task Force to help further this cause. In October, Rashford was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire.

References 

Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, Volume 40, Number 28

1997 births
2018 FIFA World Cup players
Association football forwards
Black British sportspeople
English footballers
Living people
Manchester United F.C. players
Premier League players
Sportspeople from Manchester
UEFA Euro 2016 players