What Happened to Man Utd Player Who Rejoined Club Two Decades After Leaving

Manchester United previously re-signed a player over 20 years after he initially left the club.

Cast your mind back to the 2002/03 Premier League season. Sir Alex Ferguson’s Man United side - which consisted of Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Ruud van Nistelrooy - won the Red Devils’ 15^th league title.

That summer, Ferguson brought in arguably his best signing of the time when a teenage Cristiano Ronaldo arrived from Sporting Club, while Kleberson, Eric Djemba Djemba, Tim Howard and David Bellion also joined the Old Trafford side during the summer window of 2003/04.

Beckham and Juan Sebastian Veron departed, as did a little-known academy product named Tommy Rowe.

In 2003, the then-14-year-old joined Stockport County before making his first-team debut for the Hatters in 2007. The winger/midfielder went on to make 84 appearances for the now League One club before transferring to Peterborough United, for whom he made 199 appearances.

Tommy Rowe in action for Doncaster (Credit:Getty)

Fast forward to 2016, and Rowe signed for Doncaster Rovers after an unsuccessful spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship. This was the first of two spells at the Yorkshire club, with a two-season stint at Bristol City sandwiched in between.

And somewhat surprisingly, he returned to United in 2024 over two decades on from when he initially left the club.

Rowe played in several pre-season trials games for United’s Under-21s side ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.

On August 16, 2024, Rowe, who was then 35, made his Premier League 2 debut with the club promptly confirming his signing as a player-coach.

“The experienced midfielder will create various unique development opportunities for United’s Academy players by coaching from within training sessions and driving daily standards on and off the pitch,” the club said in a statement at the time.

Tommy Rowe is player-coach at Manchester United (Credit:Getty)

And this was not the first time United employed a player-coach, with former Premier League stars Tom Huddlestone and Paul McShane undertaking similar roles in recent years.

During the 2024/25 campaign, Rowe made 14 Premier League 2 appearances and helped United finish fifth in the division.

Aside from his on-field exploits, Rowe has gone out of his way to ensure the young Red Devils are catered for.

As reported by BBC Sport in April 2025, Rowe was taking French lessons to help academy prospect Sekou Kone settle in at Carrington following his move from Guidars FC in Mali.

Fellow Under-21s coach Travis Binnion explained how Rowe had been “brilliant” and even sat in on Kone’s English lessons to enhance his understanding of French, which ultimately benefits the Mali-born player.