“It is a dream come true,” the eighteen-year-old midfielder for Manchester United told TNT Sports after winning at Molineux against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a legendary Premier League match.
“I haven’t recovered from that yet. To be honest, I still feel as though I am dreaming.
“It’s been incredible to begin representing my boyhood team in the Premier League. The goal now is to attempt to win more games.”
Mainoo made his 11th senior appearance for United today. In his prior games, he showed promise as a center midfielder.
But this was a whole other story. With a flash of individual brilliance, this young man picked up his injured teammates from the ground and helped United salvage a victory that looked to have been lost.
Mainoo found the ball 35 yards out from goal, just moments after Pedro Neto had tied the score for the home team. He outmuscled the Wolves captain Max Kilman, outwitted a defender, cut to his right foot, and curled a gorgeous low finish past Jose Sa.
The most recent young talent to emerge from United and take center stage in the Premier League is Mainoo.
United has had four of the last five Premier League 90th-minute winning goals by players who are 18 years of age or younger: Marcus Rashford in 2009, Federico Macheda in
2009, Alejandro Garnacho in 2022, Marcus Rashford in 2016, and Mainoo right now.
He would pass by groups of people.
Fans of United who have only seen him as a deep-lying central midfielder may have been surprised by his quick feet, but those who have followed his career from an early age will not have been.
At the age of five, Mainoo began playing football for the local team in Greater Manchester, Cheadle and Gatley JFC.
When Mainoo was just six years old, Steve Vare was coaching him, and he already recognized he had a remarkable player on his hands.
“I have had other kids who were exceptional at that age that have not gone on to the levels he has,” Vare stated to BBC Sport. “You believe he’s a talented player. Even at that young age, you attempt to push and test him.
