Johannesburg - Manchester United attack coach Benni McCarthy has revealed how one session at the English Premiership side landed him his dream job.
The former Blackburn Rovers striker is known for supporting Manchester United, and at the beginning of the season was entrusted with reinforcing the club’s forward line.
McCarthy is believed to be the man behind the reawakening of one of the club’s biggest stars in Marcus Rashford, who accumulated 41 goal involvements (30 goals and 11 Assists) this season.
The coach of the Red Devils Erik Ten Hag took charge ahead of the 2022/2023 campaign and he formed his own team of coaches, with the aim of awakening the sleeping giant, and a part of that team was McCarthy.
The 45-year-old has now revealed the process of his appointment.
“Erik ten Hag came in and he spoke to my agent Rob Moore about one of the players that was playing in Holland and he asked Rob about an American player that Rob also managed,” said McCarthy, speaking to MSW.
“They were just speaking about that and once the conversation had ended, he said to him, ‘By the way, how’s Benni? How is Benni doing? Is he still working in South Africa?’
“When Rob told me that the manager wanted to speak to me and wanted me to go and see him, I had a massive lump in my throat. I had just read, a couple of weeks prior to that, that he had joined Man United and I wondered what would he possibly want with me? I called him, spoke to him and he asked me to come down to Manchester and deliver a training session.”
McCarthy also detailed how he was asked to showcase his expertise now as a coach, and how it only took one session for Ten Hag to confirm him as part of his new-look technical team.
“We arranged a day for me to go down to Manchester, I went down and I took the reserve team players, which had Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo. I had all of the youth reserve players and I gave a knock-out-the-park session, a good attacking session that the players enjoyed.”
The rest, as they say, is history and a match made in heaven for McCarthy and United.
@ScribeSmiso
IOL Sport