Martial Close To Goals Record For United

Anthony Martial is closing in on a club record for goals scored by players who started their first full season at Manchester United as teenagers, which is shared by Brian Kidd and Wayne Rooney.

The Frenchman, who was 19 at the start of 2015/16 and turned 20 in December, bagged his 13th goal of the campaign on Sunday with an opportunistic back-post finish that secured a 1-0 win over Everton.

Kidd scored 17 goals during debut campaign in 1967/68, when he began as a raw 18-year-old under Sir Matt Busby and famously turned 19 on the day he netted in the European Cup final win over Benfica at Wembley. That tally has only been matched since by Rooney’s haul in 2004/05.

Norman Whiteside played his first two games at the close of 1981/82, but it was his first full campaign with United the following year that wowed fans as the 17-year-old bagged 14 goals in 57 outings.

Martial sits just behind Whiteside in our statistical table and above an 18-year-old Sir Bobby Charlton, who graduated through the ranks to score 12 goals in just 17 games during 1956/57.

Andy Ritchie made his debut in December 1977 but only made four appearances that season, which makes 1978/79 his first full campaign with the Reds and the 17-year-old scored 10 goals that term.

A 17-year-old Ryan Giggs registered seven goals in his first full season with the seniors and that places him level with his good friend Paul Scholes, who also scored seven as a 19-year-old in 1994/95.

United famously paid a world-record transfer fee for a teenager when Cristiano Ronaldo was bought from Sporting Lisbon in 2003 and the Portuguese forward went on to become the best player on the planet, although his six-goal haul during his debut season is less than half the amount registered by Martial.

George Best, perhaps the most gifted youth player in the club’s history, who went on to become one of the most iconic figures to grace a pitch, clocked up six goals as a 17-year-old in 1963/64.

With seven Barclays Premier League fixtures and at least an Emirates FA Cup sixth-round replay left to play this season, Martial has eight games to score the five goals that would make the record his own.