Alejandro Garnacho is tearing up the Premier League at just 18. Our Johnny really likes the look of him; he is proper.
Who’s this then?
Alejandro Garnacho Ferreyra is a 5’11” 18-year-old, Madrid-born winger who currently plays for Manchester United and qualifies to play for both Spain and Argentina.
After playing for Getafe as a kid, he joined Atlético Madrid’s youth system in 2015 aged just 11. As a stand-out youngster, by the time he was 16 – in October 2020 – Manchester United’s academy people arrived in Madrid, took £420,000 out of the nearest cashpoint and took the boy to Old Trafford, giving him a professional contract the following year as he helped the club win the Youth Cup and bagged the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year in 2021/22.
He played 31 times for the U-18s, scored 16 goals and made eight assists. Last season he made just two first-team appearances but this season it’s been an entirely different story, with him making 23. And he’s been impressive in pretty much every game, often coming on in the second half as a substitute.
He’s scored three goals so far this season and notched five assists too.
Internationally he’s played three games for Spain’s U-18 and four for Argentina’s U-20 side, for whom he’s scored four times. Who would you rather play for? My money is on the sky blue and white.
Why the love?
Playing on the left, but being at least notionally right-footed, he’s already spoken about how he analyses the full-backs to spot weaknesses and you can really see that in his play. He’s the sort of winger who gives defenders the old twisted blood syndrome, turning them inside and out.
United has such a long history of fantastic 11s and 7s (even though he plays wearing #49) going back decades, it’s no surprise to see another developing right before our eyes. 18 is such a young age to make your breakthrough on the highest stage but he shows zero signs of lacking in confidence and zero signs of being overawed, quite the opposite.
His first instinct is to run at the defence with the ball and that’s just a thrilling thing to witness. Tactics are important but we overrate them in analysing play in 2023, if only because the structure of the team shifts during a game, with some players having licence to do whatever they want, wherever they want to do it.
It’s a cliche that football is a simple game, but it really is and Garnacho reminds us of that every time he plays. Get the ball wide, have a…
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