Trying to break into the first team is no easy feat, especially at a club like Manchester United.
If you show a lot of potential in and around the right age, you start to train with the first team and all sort of pressure is piled on you.
It can also lead to tension with older members of the first team who view you as a challenger to their position in the squad, and that was certainly the case for an ex-Manchester United academy player who was dubbed ‘the next Totti.’
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When you score 14 times in 19 games for Roma’s youth team, clubs across Europe take notice, as Davide Petrucci found out.
A £20,000 move to Manchester United saw him in their academy where he played for and captained the reserve time before cutting ties withe the club in 2014, but not before an eventful few seasons.
His performances in the youth teams, which had seen him part of the under-17 squad who won the Milk Cup in 2008, eventually saw him training with the first team.
According to the Daily Mail in 2012, a robust challenge by Petrucci on Nani in a training session lead to a conversation in the gym later in the day, which much of the squad expected would see the pair clear the air.
So obviously it came as a surprise when Nani reportedly landed a punch on the young midfielder, which left Sir Alex Ferguson furious.
Petrucci had made a big gamble by moving to England and was on his own when he came to Manchester United’s academy, which led to him striking a bond with Federico Macheda and then housemate Paul Pogba, who formerly held the record for being the most expensive Premier League player of all time.
Speaking to Yahoo Sport in 2019 he said: “It was a big step for me; I couldn’t speak English, the weather was completely different, my family was not with me, so it was hard at the start.
“My ambition was to reach a good level at such a big club and push myself forward. At the time, [Federico] Macheda was already in Manchester and we were always friends from before, so whenever he could help I was in in house with his family, which made me feel more welcome and more at home.”
He and Pogba grew close and shared a good relationship in the reserve team, and Petrucci suggests the Frenchman was always destined for greatness.
“Pogba was a really good player, you could tell from the start. He wasn’t so physically strong, as he is now. We were living together in the same house, so we had a great connection and we were enjoying too much playing together,” he said
“We had a really good team and in the two years playing together we won every competition. You could see the ambition he had but you couldn’t always tell he would end up being so good, it wasn’t until he went to Juventus and physically he became so strong, which is what made the difference for him.”
Petrucci explains he and Pogba would teach each other their language as they both tried to learn English at the same time. “We would share stories about his friends in France and mine in Italy, we would teach other the language.
“So when he went to Italy he could already speak a bit of Italian, so people were a little surprised, wondering how he could have been in England and learn to speak Italian and this is why, because me, Macheda and the other Italians taught him and he is a quick learner.
“We were going to school together trying to learn English and when we were at home, I was trying to learn French and teaching him Italian. When you’re in football, you have teammates from all over the world, so the more languages you know, the easier it is to communicate with everybody.”
While in the youth setup, he was coached by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who eventually went on to become manager of Manchester United and Petrucci said his philosophy was clear from the start.
“You could tell he was going to be a good coach because he was somebody who would give you so much freedom to express yourself, to go on the pitch and enjoy football and this is something you need and he was exactly like this.
“He was not going to put pressure on the players, he just wanted them to go out and enjoy it. This is why everyone had a great relationship with him and I think it’s why United chose him because he can carry on with his mentality.”
He left Manchester United in 2014 after not making a first team appearance, and has failed to establish himself at any club, currently playing for ACR Messina, but his contract expires at the end of the season.
