Barcelona will square off against Manchester United tomorrow in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League playoff tie at Camp Nou.
Both teams are in a good run of form, making up for an exciting match on Thursday night, creating a lot of anticipation among the fans.
While Barcelona have been extremely formidable this season, especially at home, they will need to be wary of Erik ten Hag’s Red Army, and in particular, a certain Marcus Rashford.
The 25-year-old is enjoying his finest season so far in 2022/23, bagging 21 goals across all competitions. His form after the FIFA World Cup break has been nothing short of sensational and he will pose a major threat to the solid Blaugrana defence.
Ahead of the game, Mundo Deportivo is reporting that Barcelona could have signed Marcus Rashford from Manchester United a few years ago.
According to the report, the Catalan heavyweights made attempts to try and lure him to Camp Nou when he was entering the final year of his contract with Manchester United in 2019.
Barça were in the market for a new forward who could replace Luis Suarez in the long run and had just been snubbed by Antoine Griezmann.
Pep Segura, who was the club’s director of football, was reportedly made aware in late 2018 that Rashford was unsure of renewing his contract at United and quickly got into action, holding talks with the forward’s agents and brothers.
The idea was to either sign him in 2019 when he would have just a year left on his contract or in 2020 when he would become a free agent.
Conversations were led by Segura himself and the initial response from the player’s camp were positive and generated excitement within the Blaugrana camp.
It is claimed that there were three meetings held between the two parties at the beginning of 2019. At this time, Griezmann was said to be warming up to the idea of joining Barcelona, having turned them down in 2018.
But, the Rashford option was not taken off the table as he was seen as a great market opportunity for the present and the future.
It is being reported that the striker’s brothers had made a commitment to Barcelona that they would not renew with Manchester United and force an exit if need be.
However, at this point, Rashford had nerves about making such a big move at that stage of his career. He was just 21 at the time and had concerns about the huge shift it would involve in terms of language, dressing room atmosphere, environment and style of football.
Hence, in the end, he decided to continue at Manchester United, signing a massive contract worth €280,000 per week which ran until 2023 but with an option of an additional twelve months.