Joe Ganley, a Manchester United in-house reporter, wrote an excellent piece on Kobbie Mainoo on the club’s website. Therein, he mentioned the 19-year-old’s meteoric rise. “Just 1,799 people watched Kobbie Mainoo’s first competitive 90 minutes of 2023-24 in the flesh,” wrote Ganley. He was playing for United U-21s against Salford City at the latter’s Peninsula Stadium. The teams were vying for the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.
On Sunday, Mainoo will play the Euro 2024 final at Olympiastadion Berlin, in front of 74,000 spectators. England manager Gareth Southgate has given the keys to his midfield to the teenager from Stockport and he would be a star attraction.
What is the biggest upgrade in football? A lot of United fans have been answering this question by pointing towards England’s midfield shift from Jordan Henderson to Mainoo. English football revels in its tribalism, and not much should be read into a former Liverpool player getting some stick from United fans. Henderson has been a loyal servant of English football but once he was done with the national team, someone had to fill the void. Mainoo has done it with aplomb, pairing up with Declan Rice in central midfield, the most difficult position on the pitch.
Grace, poise, balance, intelligence and work ethic – Mainoo has them all. And he has been displaying talent and maturity beyond his years. He seamlessly fitted into United’s first team and was the lone bright spot in a wretched season (2023-24) under Erik ten Hag. He scored the winner in the FA Cup final against Manchester City, converting Bruno Fernandes’ no-look assist. And when Southgate turned to him at half-time against Slovenia, Mainoo took to top-level international football like a duck to water. A message from legendary former United manager Sir Matt Busby still hangs on the wall in the Old Trafford dressing room: “If you’re good enough, you’re old enough.”
England have had several big moments at the ongoing Euros – Jude Bellingham’s wonder goal at the death against Slovakia that kept the Three Lions in the competition, Bukayo Saka’s equaliser against Switzerland and Ollie Watkins’ 90th minute winner in the semi-final against the Netherlands. But that half-time substitution against Slovenia finally gave the team the right balance.
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It was heartening the way Mainoo controlled the show against the Netherlands in the first half. One moment he was moving forward with nonchalant elegance to release Phil Foden, while minutes later he was sprinting towards his own goal to thwart a Netherlands attack. He was the best player on the pitch and his link-up play with Foden was first-class.
No wonder then that even legendary former players are effusive in Mainoo’s praise. “I’ve watched him (Mainoo) closely and the first 30 per cent of passes of the ball he gets in a game, in those opening minutes, he is happy just playing the ball short, five or 10 yards, waiting for the right moment for his natural raw ability to come out,” Rio Ferdinand, ex-England centre-half and United legend, wrote in his BBC column.
“Then, when the moment comes – and he knows exactly when – he can give you that little bit of ‘wow’ factor where he draws someone out, breaks the press, or when the opposition think, they are going to nick the ball off him.”
Another United legend, Paul Scholes, has gone a step further. “Read a few comparisons between me and this kid last week,” the ‘ginger genius’ wrote on Instagram after United’s FA Cup triumph. “Don’t waste your time, he is 10 times the player I was at 19.”
Three years ago, in the European Championship final at Wembley, England made the mistake of surrendering the initiative, allowing Italy to come back into the game after taking an early lead. Southgate is expected to learn from his mistakes. In Mainoo, he has a forward-thinking and forward-moving player who can control the tempo of the match and ensure no repeat.
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