Shoretire has now got the taste for more
Shola Shoretire is keen to build on his first-team experience after making his Manchester United debut in the 3-1 victory over Newcastle United.
The forward came on in the 89th minute of the Premier League win at Old Trafford to enter the club’s history books as the seventh-youngest debutant for the Reds at 17 years and 19 days old.
Our Academy product has been with United since he was 10, after moving to Manchester from Newcastle, where he had been at the famous north-east Wallsend Boys' Club that had also produced our former midfielder and current first-team coach Michael Carrick.
Having taken Shoretire on the trip to Turin last week for our last-32 Europa League first-leg win against Real Sociedad, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer brought him on for Marcus Rashford against the Magpies.
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“Shola has been training with us now for a while and he’s done really well. It was the next step up for him,” said the boss.
“We felt, of course in the transfer window last time, we let a few players go out on loan, which made the path for him shorter and I’m sure he’ll remember his five or six minutes on the pitch tonight.”
Shoretire is the latest in a long list of United’s home-produced talent to progress to the first-team.
“It’s in our DNA, it’s what we do at Man United and it’s important that our kids know that when they’re good enough, they’re old enough,” said Solskjaer.
Naturally, Shoretire was delighted with his first taste of senior action.
“It feels great. It is such a proud moment for me and my family. I’ve worked so hard to get here and my mum and my dad. I have been at the club since I was 10 and it is a dream come true to be playing for the biggest club in the world,” Shola said in his first interview with us.
“Obviously, it is what I want to do now. Doing the thing that I love, playing football for the best club in the world, and I want to carry on.
“Everyone in the Academy idolises Marcus [Rashford] and Mason [Greenwood]. They have gone through the path we want to follow. I can learn from them.
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“I was nervous but I have worked really hard to get here, to this moment, that I just wanted to do the best I could and, hopefully, I can keep getting minutes and, as I get older, play more and keep enjoying my time at the club.
“Hopefully, it is just the start. I am going to keep working hard in training, keeping my head down and keeping humble and looking forward to playing more.
“Looking at people like Marcus and Mason, they have come through the same thing as I have through the Academy and it shows the coaches have been doing a really good job. It was nice to have Nicky Butt and Mark Dempsey on the bench because I have been with them in the Under 23s, helping me out. So it was good to share the moment with them.”
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UNITED'S YOUNGEST PLAYERS
1. David Gaskell (16 yrs 0 months)
2. Jeff Whitefoot (16 yrs, 3 months)
3. Duncan Edwards (16 years 6 months)
4. Angel Gomes (16 years 8 months)
5. Willie Anderson (16 years 11 months)
6. Norman Whiteside (16 years 11 months)
7. Shola Shoretire (17 years 0 months)
List collated by @MRMUJAC on Twitter.