Manchester United’s new striker had a taste of English football years before his Old Trafford move

The 23-year-old will now be coached by a legendary former United striker who he could eclipse

Manchester United striker Joshua Zirkzee was offered a route into the Premier League seven years ago with Everton seeking to sign him before eventually deciding to sign for Bayern Munich. Zirzkee completed a £36.5million move to United over the weekend after weeks of speculation.

Once he returns from his holiday after helping the Netherlands reach the semi finals of Euro 2024, having been knocked out after a 2-1 defeat by England, the Dutchman will make his debut in the English game, which United supporters will be relishing despite it being a few weeks away.

Zirkzee, 23 has already played professionally in Germany, Belgium and Italy during his career but does have a taste of the English game playing for Everton’s U19 side in a tournament in Prague back in 2017. When he was a youth player at Feyenoord, he was suited by both Everton and Arsenal.

The Everton manager at the time, current Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman looked to have signed Zirkzee thanks to his influence at Feyenoord, with Koeman playing for the club, then managing them, but 16-year-old Zirkzee ended up turning down the move to the Toffees.

It was the complexities with the English game that deterred the player from signing for Everton, which was an adult decision for the 16-year-old and not seven years later, he has made that move and will be a regular at the Theatre of Dreams seeking to eclipse previous Dutch strikers at he club.

At the time he played for Everton in a youth tournament, Zirkzee decided to avoid the move to England, keeping this footballing education in his native Netherlands, then a year later making the move to Bayern Munich where he won the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League.

Zirkzee then moved to Bologna in Italy in the summer of 2022 where he was watched by many different teams, including United and Bayern, who sold him to the Italian club. United needed to replace Anthony Martial and strengthen the forward line, so his move to Old Trafford was born.

The Dutchman will be guided by one of the Dutch strikers that he will be seeking to eclipse at United, Ruud van Nistelrooy who was brought in this summer to act as an assistant manager with United meaning business under the Ineos umbrella, at least in a footballing respect.

Written by Paul


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I support Manchester United, the greatest English football team to have ever existed. Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of players with great ability to play for the club. I idolised Bryan Robson, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and Eric Cantona growing up.