Bryan Mbeumo: United's Grand Master

From the world of professional football, where the elite player’s every move is watched, analysed and dissected, to the chessboard, where your every move is watched only by your direct opponent.

Mbeumo plays a lot.

"I like piano, playing chess, video games,” he told us in his signing interview. “I'm just a normal guy.”

That is certainly the conclusion for those who have been lucky enough to spend time with him since his arrival from Brentford. Bryan is a normal guy… who’s very good at football and has signed for his dream club.

He’s loved getting to know his new team-mates at United, pulling on the red shirt and playing at Old Trafford. And when he gets home after training, he’ll often sit on the sofa, pull out his phone, and play a game of online chess.

When we had some time to spend with him, several weeks on from his signing interview, it was only right we got the chessboard out. We pulled a table into the centre of one of two new MUTV studios at the refurbished Carrington and welcomed him in. It felt a little different to his sofa at home, but the game was the same.

Getting athletes away from the on-pitch environment and into another setting can often provide a different insight into who they are, or what they’re really like. Or it can reinforce what you may already think. Bryan seems a quiet, thoughtful young man. But, his team-mates tell us, he’s funny and confident once he settles into a new group.

He’s also clearly a thinker. He loves nature - he went on a snow-walking holiday earlier this year - and has shown an aptitude for tactical understanding throughout his career.

In our first interview, Mbeumo mentioned ‘automatisms’ and his desire to develop them at United. It was clearly a term he’d picked up under Thomas Frank at Brentford. It’s a funny quirk of football that foreign players - be it in England or another country - often learn very specific and niche tactical terms long before they can chat confidently about normal life.

Bryan spoke a little English before his 2019 move to England, but had to learn quickly as he developed his game in the Championship.

What was never missing was hard work. He’s always been a grafter. But he learnt the English game, as well as the language, at Brentford. And, at home, he played chess.

As we began to play, IU attempted to play the ‘London Opening’, one of the many, many possible beginnings to a game that can set you up for success and an homage to his old club. As a less seasoned player than Bryan, IU did not succeed fully, but the strategy did at least create an even game. Chess is strategy, one of its key similarities with football.

Some of football’s first great thinkers developed their tactics by moving things around on a table. In Budapest, Hungary, in the early part of the century, it was coffee cups and other related items, for they met in coffeehouses. In England in a later decade, it was salt-and-pepper shakers in the chippy. Chess pieces might have been neater.

The two games are so much about seeing several moves or steps ahead and attacking play is so often begun by baiting your opponent. In chess, that’s with a series of moves which hide your ultimate objective, or create a ‘fork’ whereby the opponent must choose one of two pieces to sacrifice. In football, coaches talk about ‘baiting the press’ as a team, or individual players approach dribbling like a matador. Can you use your body shape, feigning this way and that, and your control of the ball, to send your opponent the wrong way? Mbeumo certainly can.

But on the chessboard, our match stayed even for now. Bryan thought long and hard about his each move, a luxury rarely afforded on the pitch. Both games certainly require excellent decision-making. In chess, there are 30 possible moves on average per turn, and 40 turns in a game. That’s immensely complex. But on the pitch, it often requires instinctive excellence, or an ability to comprehend near-limitless possibilities in a split-second.

For Bryan, he’s explained before, when he’s taking on a player, he’s watching their balance, body shape and eyes, calculating the best method past. It’s an amazing ability. His captain, Bruno Fernandes, tried to explain it to IU in a previous season. Sitting in front of a TV screen watching one of his goals back, we paused it and asked him to explain his thought process. Three minutes and several hundred words later, he finished. And with that, he’d only explained a mere second of a 90-minute match. Time seems to slow down for the best players.

The decisions are important. Momentum can swing instantly. ‘A blunder’, they call it in chess, and the game is gone.

And so, you concentrate very hard. You lose yourself from whatever else is going on in your life. For Mbeumo, that’s often on his sofa after training or a game. And you can imagine that being a useful mood regulator, to bring you back down to earth after a great session, or back up to normality after a tough one.

With our time drawing to a close and Bryan edging closer to victory, IU resigned. Bryan accepted but kept reviewing the board, analysing the game. We shook hands and bid farewell to a footballer who clearly thinks deeply, relishes the opportunity to work his mind and has a desire to always be one step ahead. Chess for him is a way to unwind. For us, it was an insight into the mind of United’s latest attacking star.

This feature originally appeared in the latest edition of Inside United, our much-loved monthly magazine, packed with insights into Manchester United. This month's edition also includes an exclusive interview with Luke Shaw, Academy insight, the lowdown on the revamped Carrington building and much more. Order your copy here.