It wasn’t too long ago when Wayne Rooney made a name at age 16 by scoring “to end Arsenal’s 30-match unbeaten run and make him the Premier League’s youngest scorer.” Nor was it long ago that a 17-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo “also made a dazzling United debut off the bench against Bolton Wanderers six years ago.” So the huge amount of hype currently circulating teenaged Italian striker Federico Macheda is nothing new at ManU.
“Federico was the jewel of the Lazio youth team and will end up becoming one of the finest strikers in Europe,” or so claims Volfango Patarca, a scout for the Rome club that was forced to watch their prized product walk away due to Italian law that says teams can’t sign anyone under 16 to a contract.
Lazio’s loss became United’s gain, as after two years with the reserve team he showed enough promise that Sir Alex Ferguson “dangled the carrot of a place on the bench against (Aston) Villa if he performed well in a reserve game against Newcastle United.” After a hat trick in that contest, the call-up was his, to which he responded, of course, with a game winner in stoppage time.