3. Zidane Iqbal
Age: 17
Position: attacking midfielder
Nation: England
While the aforementioned ones were imported from other countries, here we have a Mancunian red in Zidane Iqbal. Born and brought up in Manchester, Iqbal joined the Manchester United academy early in his childhood, moulding his game better and better with each passing season.
When scrutinising his name, one might definitely notice that his first name is “Zidane” — the surname of Real Madrid legend, French World Cup winner, and current Los Blancos manager Zinedine Zidane.
While asked about whether the weight of the name “Zidane” offers the youngster some extra pressure or not, the 17-year-old, with a slight grin on his face, answered, “I hope to be as good as Zinedine Zidane one day but they are really high standards to live up too but hopefully I reach them.”
An attacking midfield by trade, Iqbal is known across the academy for his accurate line-breaking passes, playing in the ‘No. 10’ role for the youth sides of Manchester academy. Speaking about his position on the field, Iqbal claimed:
"“My position on the pitch is midfield, I prefer to be one of the attacking ones. But I do sometimes play the deeper midfielder.”"
Manchester United, in the 2019-20 campaign, has struggled a lot for not having a satisfactory attacking midfielder for more than three months into the season, making a torrid start to the campaign which went on until Bruno Fernandes came and rescued the half-drowned ship of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
With a creatively apt prodigy in Zidane Iqbal making his progress through the youth ranks, Solskjaer might be looking at the academy grad before going elsewhere next time. And who knows? Maybe the next time surprisingly comes next season.