Marcus Rashford

Early career

Rashford began playing football for Fletcher Moss Rangers at the age of five, starting out as a goalkeeper, and cited former United goalkeeper Tim Howard as his goalkeeping idol. Fletcher Moss Rangers academy development officer Dave Horrocks recalls that Rashford was on a "different level" to other boys, playing a major role as the team won a tournament with 15 scouts from various clubs watching. He spent a week training with Manchester City before he joined the academy system at Manchester United at the age of seven, amid interest from Everton and Liverpool. He credited his brothers with helping him decide to join United. Former United youth coach Paul McGuinness quickly saw Rashford's potential due to his athleticism both on and off the ball, but during his early years at the club he often had to miss training as a result of difficulty getting there while his mother and brothers were at work. He eventually received assistance from youth coaches Dave Bushell, Eamon Mulvey, and Tony Whelan, who helped find drivers for Rashford to get to the training ground. When he was 11, he became the youngest ever player to be selected for the Manchester United Schoolboy Scholars scheme, usually reserved for players 12 and above. He was fastracked and began playing cage football with Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Ravel Morrison, helping to increase his skill level playing with players four years his senior. In 2012, he was part of the Manchester United under-15 squad…

Youth

In 2012, Rashford was invited to an England under-16 training camp, and was later selected to play in the Victory Shield against Northern Ireland under-16s in September, and Wales under-16s in October. Under-16's manager Kenny Swain later revealed that Rashford only played two appearances for the side due to an understanding with coaches at Manchester United regarding him being underdeveloped physically, and also thought the exposure would have been "too much" for him. Three weeks after making his senior début for United in early 2016, Rashford made his first appearance for the England under-20 team, providing an assist for Kasey Palmer in a 2–1 defeat to Canada under-20s. Despite already making his senior début earlier in the year, Rashford was called up to the England under-21 team for the first time in August 2016 for a fixture in September against Norway under-21s. He scored a hat-trick in the 6–1 home victory over Norway in his only appearance for the team, scoring the third with a penalty, his first since turning professional. Under-21 manager Gareth Southgate praised Rashford for his humility in dropping down to under-21 level. Despite having already made his senior tournament début, it was expected Rashford would be available for selection for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, with the hopes of gaining more tournament experience. United manager José Mourinho responded to these reports by stating it would make no sense for his development as…

Marcus Rashford was born on 31 October 1997 in Manchester, and raised in the Fallowfield, Withington, and Wythenshawe areas of the city. His father is from Jamaica, and his mother of Kittitian descent, with his grandmother born on the West Indies island of Saint Kitts. Rashford comes from a working class family; his mother is Melanie Maynard, a single parent who worked multiple jobs, sometimes skipping meals to ensure her children had enough to eat. Rashford has four older siblings: two brothers, Dwaine Maynard and Dane Rashford, both of whom went on to represent him professionally, and two sisters, Chantelle and Claire. He is a cousin of footballer Lois Maynard, who plays as a midfielder for Radcliffe. A childhood supporter of his local football club Manchester United, Rashford grew up in a family divided in their support of United and local rivals Manchester City. Rashford attended Ashton-on-Mersey School, where United have sent their academy players since 1998, close to their Carrington training ground; he studied for a Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) National Diploma in Sport.

Food poverty campaign

In October 2019, Rashford set up the In the Box campaign with Selfridges to give homeless people essential items over the Christmas period, something he had wanted to do when first training with United as a youth. He and his mother visited homeless shelters to personally hand the boxes out, while also sending some to a children's home in his grandmother's home country of Saint Kitts and Nevis. He was reportedly frustrated by the limited outreach the campaign resulted in. In March 2020, during the UK lockdown imposed by Boris Johnson's government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rashford teamed up with the poverty and food waste charity FareShare to deliver meals to those in the Greater Manchester area who were no longer receiving their free school meals, as well as to children who attended community centres and school breakfast clubs. Rashford initially contacted FareShare to make a "substantial" donation, but after discussion with CEO Lindsay Boswell, he decided to provide his full support. With an initial target of supporting 400,000 children in the region, the initiative quickly raised over £20 million to provide food for children nationwide who, if still at school, would be receiving free school meals. On 11 June, Rashford said that the charity had been able to provide 3 million meals across the country, a figure that rose to 4 million the following month. On 15 June, Rashford wrote an open letter to the UK government calling on them to…