David Beckham's halfway line strike and goals galore from Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy - £62.5m new boy Matheus Cunha has big boots to fill as Man United's latest No 10
Matheus Cunha is set to take the storied No 10 shirt off Marcus Rashford after completing his £62.5million move to Old Trafford.
The Brazilian will become the latest in a long line of players to wear the hallowed jersey. In the Premier League era, 10 other players have taken on the mantle.
Prior to 1993, the likes of George Best, Sir Bobby Charlton, and Denis Law all wore the No 10 during a time when fixed squad numbers were not around.
Back in the day, shirt Nos 1 to 11 were typically assigned based on starting position. But now, they have a story behind them - it's the players who define the number, not the other way round.
Some of United's greatest players have graced the No 10 and bestowed it with unique meaning and pressure.
And here, Mail Sport looks back at every Red Devil to try it on in the Premier League era.
Mark Hughes (1993-95)
The first season of the Premier League in 1992-93 saw no allocated squad numbers. However, Mark Hughes often wore this No. And when they became allocated in 1993-94, this famous No became his.
Those two season yielded his customary goals and trophies during United's dominance that decade. He scored 34 goals in 100 games in all competitions over those two seasons alone - with the Red Devils winning a Premier League and FA Cup Double in 1993-94.
After Hughes left the club, the No was vacant for a season until the man below took it...
David Beckham (1996-97)
For a whole generation, David Beckham is a stylish figure whose free-kicks they tried desperately to emulate in parks and streets across the nation; kids contorting their bodies into unnatural positions in a vain attempt to meet the ball in the right place and 'bend it like Beckham'.
Before sporting the iconic No 7, Beckham had a short stint with the No 10 on his back. It was with this shirt that he made his first steps to becoming a household name, with a spectacular halfway line strike against Wimbledon on the opening day of the 1996-97 season.
The midfielder found the back of the net from 57 yards out, a goal which was later voted as the 18th greatest sporting moment ever by the British public, in a poll conducted by Channel 4.
Beckham won six Premier League titles with the Red Devils and scored 85 goals in 394 appearances. While these numbers aren't too shabby, we all know his impact extended past the stat sheet. If Cunha could emulate half of what Beckham did at United, he would go down in the club's history forever.
Teddy Sheringham (1997-2001)
Following Eric Cantona's shock retirement in 1997, Teddy Sheringham had big boots to fill up front for United. He joined from Tottenham for £3.5m, and wore the No 10 for the entirety of his tenure at Old Trafford until 2001.
During this time, he made 153 appearances and scored 46 goals, the most important of which came in the 1999 Champions League final.
The 6ft 1in striker came off the bench to score an equaliser against Bayern Munich in added time, before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's winning goal clinched a historic treble for United just moments later.
During his tenure, Sheringham won three Premier League titles, while his most prolific goalscoring season came in his swansong year at the club, when he scored 15 goals. To think he'd struggle to make the best three players on this list says a lot about the history of United's No 10 shirt.
Ruud van Nistelrooy (2001-06)
Ruud van Nistelrooy can't technically be called a 'proper No 9' because his goalscoring antics at United were performed with the No 10 draped on the back of his shirt - but you get the point.
In his debut season at the club, the Dutchman netted 23 goals in 32 league games, scoring in eight consecutive matches, and was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year.
Barring an injury-ridden 2004-05 campaign, Van Nistelrooy scored 20 or more goals in every Premier League season he played in.
He departed Old Trafford after five seasons with a total of 150 goals in 219 appearances, and four more trophies to his name, including a Premier League title. Out of every player on this list, a player like Van Nistelrooy might be what the current United are screaming out for the most.
Wayne Rooney (2007-2017)
Having been given the No 8 when he arrived from Everton in 2005, Wayne Rooney switched to the No 10 ahead of the 2007-08 season.
And it was with the double digits on his back that he performed most of the work which cemented him as one of United's greatest ever players - perhaps their greatest.
After making the change, Rooney won four Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a Champions League and more. The former club captain is United's all-time top goalscorer with 253 goals in 559 games.
Rooney's legacy goes unspoken. He embodied everything it meant to play for United, not just wear the No 10 shirt. He was a real fan favourite, and a paragon which the club have been begging for since his exit.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2017-18)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic initially donned the No 9 when he joined United on a free transfer from PSG in 2016. In his first season, he proved why he was still one of Europe's most dangerous frontmen, scoring 28 goals in 46 games.
His season was cut short by an ACL injury sustained in April 2017, but he was still instrumental in leading United to an EFL Cup and a Europa League title.
Yet, in spite of all of his self-aggrandisement, which saw him refer to himself as a lion or even as 'Zlatan' in the third person, Father Time claimed victory over the seemingly indomitable Ibrahimovic.
He wore the No 10 in his second season, which was derailed by his knee injury, meaning he only made seven appearances in all competitions and scored just once. Consequently, the Swede's contract was terminated by mutual consent in March 2018.
Marcus Rashford (2018-2025)
Few Carrington graduates have burst onto the scene quite like Marcus Rashford did. He made his mark after being called up at the eleventh hour to replace Anthony Martial in a Europa League game against Midtjylland in 2016. Rashford scored a brace in that game, then another against Arsenal just days later.
Given the No 10 shirt in 2018, Rashford was tipped to join the ranks of club icons. While spells of brilliance have punctuated his time at Old Trafford, including a 30-goal campaign in 2022-23, too many seasons have passed where he's just been off it.
For every dazzling spell of form, there has been an equal stretch of anonymity. In fairness to him, he didn't choose to get chucked into United's worst era in Premier League history.
Whether time will be kind to Rashford's legacy is yet to be seen. He's won two FA Cups, two EFL Cups and a Europa League title. In 426 games, the forward has scored 138 goals and is United's 13th all-time top goalscorer.
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'We haven't seen something emotional like this in years, and hopefully it's a sign Michael is on the mend. It has been a long, horrible journey for the family, and maybe we'll see him in the F1 paddock soon.' Herbert's sentiments testify to the power of hope. While well-intentioned, they are negated by all available evidence. Since Schumacher struck his head on a rock while skiing in Méribel in December 2013, suffering such devastating brain trauma that he was placed in a coma for 250 days, he has made no public appearance of any kind. The likelihood, given the gravity of his injuries and wife Corinna's insistence on absolute privacy, is that he will never be seen by the wider world again. The effect of the family's scrupulous discretion is twofold. On the one hand, they have created a ring of steel around Schumacher, to the point where nobody can state with certainty even where he is being treated. As Corinna has put it: 'Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael.' But the dearth of official health updates has bred a fascination so intense that the most elaborate fictions can masquerade as fact. In 2023, Die Aktuelle, a German women's interest weekly, ran a strapline promising 'Schumacher: the first interview', only for it to be disclosed at the end of the article that the quotes were generated by artificial intelligence. The publishers had to pay £170,000 in compensation, while the editor was fired. Today the only semblance of access to Schumacher's situation comes via his former inner circle in the sport. Just this week, Flavio Briatore, the irrepressible figure instrumental in his mid-Nineties glories at Benetton, offered an unusual level of detail, appearing to indicate the seven-time champion was bed-bound. 'If I close my eyes,' he told Corriere della Sera, 'I see him smiling after a victory. I prefer to remember him like that rather than him just lying on a bed. Corinna and I talk often, though.' Sabine Kehm, the Schumacher family's spokeswoman, did not respond to a request for comment. But Briatore's policy is one that Bernie Ecclestone, the sport's former ringmaster, has also adopted. While he is still in touch with Corinna, he clarified as early as 2015 that he would not be paying house visits, preferring to cherish the memory of the Michael he knew. Asked if this feeling remained the same a decade on, he replied: 'Absolutely. A hundred per cent.' Briatore's intervention came after his ex-wife, Elisabetta Gregoraci, said in 2020: 'Michael doesn't speak, he communicates with his eyes. Only three people can visit him and I know who they are.' Who are the three? Two we can identify with confidence are Jean Todt and Ross Brawn, the team principal and technical director during Schumacher's all-conquering years at Ferrari. Gerhard Berger, who went from being the German's fierce adversary to a close friend – and who, by eerie coincidence, broke his arm skiing off-piste just 10 weeks after that fateful Méribel morning – is understood to be the third. Brawn has spent time on several occasions with Schumacher at his vast house in Gland, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva, cementing an unbreakable bond. He has provided the odd expression of optimism, saying in 2016 that the driver was showing 'encouraging signs' of recovery and that he was 'extremely hopeful we'll see Michael as we knew him at some point in the future'. Todt has long been the most frequent guest, welcomed by the family around twice a month. He has given a few more specifics, divulging that he and Schumacher have watched F1 races together on television. 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Both Tozturkan and Lins had claimed to be offering the family a 'business deal'. Before the verdict was announced, Tozturkan said: 'I'm very sorry and ashamed for what I have done. It was a very disgusting thing. I take full responsibility.' During the trial, the Schumachers had voiced worries that one hard drive containing sensitive photos had not been recovered, despite several searches of the defendants' residences. Thilo Damm, their lawyer, confirmed their plan to appeal against the 'lenient' punishment, saying: 'We don't know where the missing hard drive is. So there is the possibility of another threat through the back door.' Kehm, the first witness called, gave an insight into the acute anxieties inside the Schumacher camp around breaches of trust. 'I got a call, and it was a number we didn't recognise, so at first we didn't answer,' she told the court in Wuppertal. 'But it kept calling and calling, so in the end I answered, and it was a man who said he had pictures of Michael, that if the family didn't want them published he could help. We would have to pay €15 million. He said the money was for the pictures and his go-between service.' In Corinna and the long-serving Kehm, at his side since joining as his personal press officer in 1999, Michael has two formidably effective gatekeepers. Now that he is seemingly no longer in a position to dictate his wishes, the two women unswervingly loyal to him exercise them on his behalf, upholding his long-held principle that his private life is off-limits. 'We are getting on with our lives,' she explained in the 2021 Netflix documentary Schumacher, the only interview she has given since the day of horror in the French Alps. ''Private is private,' as he always said.' Theirs was always a strong marriage, even under the stresses of the F1 hamster-wheel. Michael once said of Corinna, a celebrated equestrienne who became a European champion in Western-style horse riding: 'We share the same values. During all the time I was racing, she was my guardian angel.' Still, you cannot help but wonder at the toll that the tragedy of Michael's circumstances has wrought on his wife's wellbeing. Eddie Jordan, who died in March but who had given Schumacher his first F1 chance, recruiting him to his eponymous team in 1991, did not shy away from a view on the subject. Having known Corinna since before she married Michael, he said in 2023: 'This was the most horrific situation. Corinna has not been able to go to a party, to lunch or this or that – she's like a prisoner, because everyone would want to talk to her about Michael when she doesn't need reminding of it every minute.' Schumacher accumulated a vast fortune as the most decorated driver of his era, with a net worth estimated at £450 million. 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Each time that a gross violation of privacy occurs, the culprit is full of contrition. Just as Tozturkan admitted his extortion attempt was a 'disgusting' act, Bianca Pohlmann, managing director of Funke – the company behind the notorious AI article in Die Aktuelle – apologised for the 'tasteless and misleading' stunt. And yet the pattern keeps repeating, with the voracious global appetite to learn more about Schumacher naturally hardening a resolve among his protectors to give nothing. Willi Weber, his ex-manager, has been critical of this circumspect approach, previously accusing the Schumachers of 'not telling the whole truth' about Michael and urging them to 'pour pure wine for his millions of fans'. At this stage, any such urgings are redundant. What remains of Michael's life will unfold according to Corinna's prescription, where, to whatever degree possible, he can feel the strength of the family bond, and where she and their two children can, in turn, map out their lives without prurient intrusion. It is worth asking whether that white helmet, now the pride of the Sir Jackie Stewart collection, should mark the end of the intrigue. There is something intensely poignant about seeing the addition of that 'MS' beneath the visor. It is as much as we had any right to expect, and as much as he is ever likely to provide. On the surface, it might look insignificant, with even Stewart conceding that it had needed the guiding hand of Corinna to produce. But the weight of its symbolism is profound, signifying that Schumacher, now 56 years old and the figure by whom all other champions are judged, is still with us, still capable of communicating through his touch. In an otherwise shattering tale, it is the one consolation to which we can cling.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ange Postecoglou's wild ride ends at Spurs after steering Australia back to the big time
Ange Postecoglou took Tottenham Hotspur on the wildest of rides. A record-breaking run to begin his first Premier League campaign in charge. An injury-riddled slump that led Spurs to within sight of relegation the next season. A promise to win a trophy in his second year. The club's first piece of silverware since 2008. The sack coming just 16 days later. All-out attack. Defensive dare. Stirring late comebacks. Calamitous and costly goals conceded at the death. No score was safe. No Spurs supporter, let alone pundit, was left without an entrenched view of his capabilities as a coach. No football fan, whether in north London or as far away as Australia, dared to look away. The hair-raising adventure is one that Australian football fans have been on before. During Postecoglou's time in charge of the men's national team, as the Socceroos failed to earn a point in a horror group at the 2014 World Cup but rallied to win the Asian Cup the following year. When the coach had earlier led Brisbane Roar to a pair of A-League championships, and later won the J1 League with Yokohama and five trophies with Scottish giants Celtic. A manic press in attack. A high line in defence. Goals at both ends. Peaks and troughs across each game, let alone during a full campaign. A rollercoaster ride has always been part of the Postecoglou experience. Taking the show on the road to Japan and Scotland sparked fresh Australian interest in Postecoglou's teams and those leagues. But bringing it to the Premier League has steered Australia back to the big time. Not since the days when Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka graced the main stage have Australians been given such a solid reason to support a second English team. As fans relished watching Postecoglou rattle the football establishment, Tottenham Hotspur became the hottest club in his distant homeland. A whirlwind stirred up around a brash foreign manager arriving in the Premier League is nothing new. A laconic Australian demeanour and press conferences peppered with gratuitous use of the term 'mate' – while otherwise doing little to conceal a hard edge and stubborn confidence – left fans as much as the media hanging off his every word, while his compatriots were warmed by a sense of pride. The 59-year-old has been unwavering in his ideals, for better or worse, throughout his coaching journey. Postecoglou is not just comfortable dividing opinion. He often appears to go out of his way to hammer a wedge through it. But whether Spurs' ruthless decision to axe a coach who led the club to a European title just 16 days earlier is the right call is much less clear and will remain one up for debate. After a fifth-place finish in the Premier League, just two points and one spot short of a ticket to the Champions League, Postecoglou this season guided Spurs to their worst top-flight finish in more than a century. Did Spurs pay a heavy price for their commitment to an intense style that caused the heart of the side to be ripped out through injury? Or was the coach handed a poisoned chalice with a thin squad relying too much on talented youth to compete on multiple fronts and then go all-in on a knockout competition in the chase for silverware? Whether or not their Premier League campaign was truly allowed to just wither away, as Postecoglou has since suggested, Spurs found a back door to the lucrative continental competition on an emotion-charged night in Bilbao. Spurs' 17-year trophy drought was finally broken with Europa League glory, leading to lifelong memories to be created in the Spanish city and later on the streets of north London, while Postecoglou was lauded back home as one of Australia's great exports. It was as much validation for Australian football as a victory for a favourite son. Proof that one of our own not only belonged on the global stage, but could conquer it – even if for one night only. Sign up to Australia Sport Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk after newsletter promotion The response in Australia to Postecoglou's sacking has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been centred around dismay and disappointment rather than simply one of shock. Spurs, under chair Daniel Levy, are after all a club that sacked Mauricio Pochettino mere months after he took them to the 2019 Champions League final. Another divisive coach in José Mourinho was let go in the week leading into the 2021 League Cup decider. Here is further proof that winning a trophy isn't necessarily everything in the high stakes world of football, or even just enough to save a coach's job. Spurs will now have another new manager for the Super Cup against Paris Saint-Germain in August, and never find out whether season three under Postecoglou would have been better than season two. Postecoglou has arrived at a new coaching frontier after being sent packing while still under contract. Where he lands next, whether looking to right any perceived wrongs back in the Premier League or as a breath of fresh air elsewhere in Europe, we can be sure that he will take his principles with him and that Australian football fans will follow.
