Marcus Rashford has admitted “it doesn’t feel real” being part of England’s squad at Euro 2016 after setting out at the start of the year with the sole aim, by his own admission, of establishing a regular place in Manchester United’s under-21s.
Rashford’s remarkable ascent into the first team at Old Trafford, followed by a goal three minutes into his debut for England and the confirmation he would be joining Roy Hodgson’s squad in France, has formed one of the more implausible success stories of the modern football era. The 18-year-old is now settling into England’s base camp in Chantilly wondering whether he might play a part in Saturday’s game against Russia and slowly coming to terms with his new status as an international footballer.
Yet he admits it has been a surreal few months. “When I first went into the changing room and saw all of the players’ names on the back of their shirts, it doesn’t seem real,” Rashford said. “I remember going home after and speaking to my brother about it, and he agreed with me – he didn’t think it was real either. That’s what it’s like until you get used to it.”
Rashford is also aware he might still have been playing for United’s youth teams but for an injury pile-up at Old Trafford and Anthony Martial suffering a hamstring strain during the warm-up to the Europa League tie against Midtjylland on 25 February. The teenager scored twice, adding another six goals before the end of a season when his ambitions dramatically changed.
“Back then, I was actually trying to work my way into the [United] under-21s side and all of a sudden I appeared in the first team,” Rashford said. “You have to be ready when your chance comes. To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about the England set-up much because at United there were a lot of games coming thick and fast. All of my focus was on those games. At the end of the season you hear talk, but to be here now is just amazing.”
Rashford broke Tommy Lawton’s 77-year-old record as England’s youngest ever debutant scorer when he marked his first cap by scoring with one of his first touches in the friendly win against Australia at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. “I tried not to think about it too much because that’s probably when the pressure starts to get into people’s heads and affect their performance,” he said. “I was just concentrating on playing how I’d been playing for United and all of a sudden the goal came. It was a good way to start.”
Rashford has been assigned a room next to Chris Smalling, his United team-mate, at the England hotel in Chantilly and Wayne Rooney, his club captain, has also been helping with the settling-in process. “At the time he came into the team at United, we were going through a bit of a bad period so to come into the team and take to it like he did was incredible really,” Rooney said.
“The manager [Louis van Gaal] kept faith in him so he kept his place in the team and showed what he could do. Roy put him in the 26 [the initial 26-man squad] and it was really down to Marcus to show that he was capable of being in the 23, and he certainly did that after a couple of minutes, getting his first goal for England.
“I think the most important thing is for him to enjoy it because there isn’t that pressure on him that maybe is on the lads who have to perform consistently. He’s got that freedom to go and play, to enjoy it and have no fear. I always think that, for young lads, it’s probably better to leave them and not fill them with advice – ‘you should do this, you should do that’. Just let them go and play because that’s what’s got them to the position they’re in today.”
