Marcus Rashford has made a brutally honest admission about his Manchester United career during a rare interview.

Rashford has missed United’s last four games as he recovers from a hip injury. In his absence, United have struggled, although there was some reprieve earlier this week as they came back from behind to beat AS Roma 3-2 in the Champions League.

Since he was sidelined, Rashford was available to chat with a section of fans in the Ambassadors’ Lounge at Old Trafford as part of the club’s hospitality package.

He spoke about a range of topics, including his United career so far, his idols, and his relationship with Barcelona superstar Lamine Yamal.

Career confession

Asked whether he remembers every goal he has scored for United and if he keeps a record of them, Rashford answered [as quoted by the Manchester Evening News], “No, I’d probably say I remember every goal, yeah.”

“No, I don’t, because I expected my Manchester United career to go differently to how it did, so you know initially I wanted to try and get as close as possible to Wazza’s record.” “But it’s not the way it worked out, but I definitely remember the goals I scored.”

He said of his debut against Arsenal, in which he scored a memorable brace, “I still think to this day like I couldn’t describe my feelings, just like my life pretty much just changed instantly. Like before, well, the month before those games, I could still go to the arcade at the Trafford Centre.”

“We used to go with my friends after the cinema, we used to go to the arcade. And yeah, just little stuff like that, like the next time after that we tried to go and then it was just impossible, so.”

He stated unequivocally that he does not regard the role-model responsibility or the publicity of being a United player as pressure.

“I don’t see it as pressure, I just think like for me anyway, like I can only explain it from my experiences. So, I’m just a normal kid from around Manchester and, like to be honest, I’ve not been on social media since I was like 21, because the way I see it is it’s more of a negative place than a positive place.”

“And I don’t want to get into talking about social media because obviously I know it’s a lot of people’s jobs to work in that. But as a player, 80 per cent of it, there’s no point. If you can have 20 per cent of it, and you have fun with your friends on there, then it’s worth it. Yeah, but for me it’s like, I enjoy all parts of my journey at this club.”

“Of course we want to win as many trophies as we can. But we won the trophies that we could win. We tried our best throughout the whole time I’ve been here. So I’m not the type of person to leave with regrets or anything like that. I know if I’ve tried my best, then we did.”

Football idols

When asked by a fan whether he has ever shared the pitch with someone who left him in awe, Rashford responded, “Not in awe, like that’s just not like the type of person I am. As a kid, I was quite shy, and I still am, I don’t really like talking to people. So I wouldn’t have been in awe if I’d seen anyone in person.”

“I’m not the kid that would ask like my idols questions. I met them a bunch of times, but I would never be the one to ask them for pictures or anything like that. I just listened to what they’re saying to us as kids and you know, just try to be like a sponge and just soak in what they’re saying because in the end I had an idol, Wayne Rooney, and then when I watched Cristiano, I started to idolise him too.”

“So I had idols, but I never wanted to be like my idol, if that makes sense?” “I always wanted to be me but try and take pieces of them and yeah trying to implement it into my own way.”

Rashford reflected on England’s World Cup semi-final exit, when they were torn to shreds by 39-year-old Lionel Messi.

“The semi-final was tough, but it is what it is. First half was good. We kept obviously the most dangerous player, we kept him (quiet). I thought the midfielders especially did a brilliant job with him. And then for us it all really started to change from after we got the goal I think.”

“You know, some decision-making and actually the players on the pitch. Maybe it’s difficult, a high-pressure game and you’ve just scored, and you should be on the front foot, and it didn’t go like that. After we scored, we were on the back foot.”

“So you have to try and manage it and settle it back down in order to keep moving the game forward and I just think we didn’t manage to do that, but.”

He further stated about Messi, “Yeah, Messi is Messi. Like, he’s a genius. Yeah, I don’t know, but it’s not my job to rank him in the Ballon d’Or. For me, Messi is a genius, like he’s an incredible player. You’ll probably never see another player in our lifetime in terms of like complete genius like Leo.”

“But of course, Harry Kane won the award and it’s an individual award and he scored stupid amount of goals this year and stupid amount of assists. So in my opinion, he deserved to win it this year. So I actually texted him the other day, and I said it’s well deserved.”

“Like I don’t think it’s like a surprise that he won it. I think, number-wise, and you know what he won with the club, and he deserved to win it this year.”

Yamal relationship

Rashford disclosed that he discussed the Ballon d’Or with Yamal before Kane eventually emerged victorious.

“Yes, I talked to Lamine, not after the awards but before. And before I left Barcelona, I told him I’ve played with some talented, talented players, but he’s above them all.”

“I’ve never seen a player at that age be as talented as what he is. So for me, yeah, I’ve never said this out to the media before, but for me, he’s the closest somebody can get to the level of Messi over the years.”

“It’s only my opinion, but yeah, I believe in this guy’s talent so much. So yeah, I text him and just let him know, listen, he’s what, he has finished second, third, and third. So he’s finished second place, third place, and eighth place so far.”

“And at the age of what, 19? So we’ll see what he does, but if he goes on to win seven Ballons d’Or, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Michael Carrick will be hoping to have Rashford back for Sunday’s meeting with Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Feature image Dan Mullan via Getty Images