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How Does Marcus Rashford Compare To 'Wonderkids' Of The Past ?

How Does Marcus Rashford Compare To 'Wonderkids' Of The Past ?

The United youngster turns 19 today and he's come a long way since making his first-team bow.

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Marcus Rashford celebrates his 19th birthday today and he has already accomplished so much in the game of football.

The youngster scored on his Manchester United debut, Europa League debut, Premier League debut, Manchester derby debut, England U21 debut, England first-team debut and League Cup debut. He is the king of firsts.

After bursting onto the scene with a slice of luck when Anthony Martial pulled up in the warm-up before a Europa League game with FC Midtjylland, he has come a long way and is now a key part of the Manchester United side, as well as a regular in the England squads. He made England's Euro 2016 squad just four months after making his professional debut and though that was a decision that was frowned upon by many, it spoke volumes of his talent. He wasn't fazed on the national stage either and was one of few England players to come out of Euro 2016 with a bit of credit.

There are so many talented youngster in club's academies but often at the big clubs, the path to the first-team is a long one. Rashford's compatriot Jesse Lingard only became a regular in the Manchester United squad last season at the age of 23. Rashford got his breaks and made the absolute most of them. Unlike ex youngsters such as Federico Macheda, James Wilson and Nick Powell, who all showed early promise at United, Rashford has maintained a level of consistency and is now widely considered as one of the biggest talents in world football.

Rashford
Rashford

But who does he compare to other wonderkids of the past?

At the age of 19, Rashford has made 36 first-team career appearances, in which he has scored 13 goals for club and country. His United teammate Wayne Rooney came into professional football slightly earlier in the 2002/03 season where he finished the season with 8 goals in 42 appearances, before he amassed 18 goals in 52 appearances for boyhood club Everton - the sort of form that attracted interest from Manchester United, who forked out £25.6 million for the 18-year old.

His United debut, like Rashford's, was impactful and he bagged a stunning hat-trick against Fenerbahce aged 18 years and 335 days. He finished that season with 11 goals in the Premier League, making him the club's top scorer domestically in his first season with the club.

Rooney scored 21 goals in his next season at the club and had scored 58 career goals by the time he'd turned 19. Evidently that number is a lot higher than Rashford's contributions but Rooney peaked incredibly early in his career and that has shown in his recent performances for United. At 31, he looks burnt out and he simply cannot contribute in the way he did in his earlier years.

Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney

He has not hit the heights Rooney reached in the same amount of time, but the way the game has evolved now as well as the fact that Rashford comes across as a level-headed young lad as opposed to the petulant, fiery character Rooney was in his younger days, could potentially mean that the United hot-shot maintains a higher level of consistency for a longer period of time.

Another red-hot young striker who scored on his debut nearly 20 years ago was Michael Owen, with Owen scoring an incredible 23 goals in his first full season at Liverpool as well as winning the PFA Young Player of the Year and Premier League Golden Boot awards. He retained the golden boot in the following season and had scored 37 career goals before he turned 19 on 14th December.

The youngest player to score 100 goals in the Premier League, Owen's scintillating 2000/2001 season in which Liverpool won a treble, culminated in him picking up the Ballon D'Or award in what was undoubtedly the high point of his career. He was unplayable.

However, injuries eventually took their toll on Owen, who was never a regular at Real Madrid, was hit and miss at Newcastle, and a bit-part player at Manchester United later in his career. He would retire at the age of 33.

It wouldn't be very fair to compare Rashford's accomplishments at this point to Lionel Messi and Ronaldo, but we will do just to see what the numbers are.

It's worth noting that Lionel Messi had a relatively slow start to proceedings in the Barcelona first-team before transforming into the record-breaking sensation we know today. In his first two seasons as a professional, he was hampered by injuries before he really kicked on from the 2006/07 season onwards, where he scored 17 goals in all competitions for Barcelona. By the time he turned 19, he had only scored 11 career goals but of course he reached a new level when Pep Guardiola came along and has been a football phenomenon ever since. Rashford has the better of Messi in that department, but clearly he's got a long way to go before he gets anywhere close to the Argentine.

The same goes for Cristiano Ronaldo, who Rashford followed in the footsteps of when he too won the FA Cup in his first season at United. Ronaldo had actually only scored two goals for Sporting and two for United by the time his 19th birthday rolled around - meaning Rashford takes the cake once again. Much like his rival Messi, Ronaldo took time to morph into the freak of a footballer that we are all accustomed to seeing.

This comparison isn't being done to make out that Rashford is better than Messi and Ronaldo or anything like that as outside factors come into play, but it does highlight his monumental rise to stardom. The current campaign under Jose Mourinho is his first full season in professional football and like many of the players aforementioned above, he is still developing. Personally, I can see him becoming more of a wide forward than a natural number nine as his career goes on, but he has already shown that he is able to adapt to multiple roles - which is a key trait to have when playing under a manager like Mourinho.

If he continues on the same path, stays grounded and stays clear of injuries, then what a player United and England have on their hands.

Stats via Soccerway, Genius.com and Wikipedia.

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Lionel Messi, Marcus Rashford, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo