Marcus Rashford on Man Utd Being in the Title Race, Childhood Idols & More

Marcus Rashford is having a hell of a year.

The 22-year-old Manchester United striker scored a career best 22 goals in all competitions in 2019/20, while off the pitch he picked up a PFA Merit Award, an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester and became just about the most popular man in the country for his incredible charity work and campaigning.

The next 12 months promise to bring more excitement and intrigue for the star, with United looking to push on from an impressive but ultimately trophy-less end to last season, while the European Championships with England are around the corner.

The striker spoke to 90min - as part of Coca-Cola's 'Make Your Home the Home End' campaign -about the year ahead, United's targets, his childhood heroes and more.

"'Raring to go'"

This footballing year has been particularly unusual, with just seven weeks separating the end of the 2019/20 Premier League campaign and the start of 2020/21 (and with European football in between). However, Rashford insists he and his teammates are ready to get straight back into the action.

“After a few days off [from football] you do start to miss it and now I’m raring to go and for the season to begin again," he told 90min.

“The short break is not a problem for us.

"Of course we understand the situation that we’re in. This year’s been crazy. We’ve just had to take everything in our stride as much as we can and keep our routine as normal as possible.”

"'I wouldn’t rule us out of a title race'"

As far as United's targets for the new season go, it's all about silverware.

United finished the season strongly in third and were perhaps the Premier League's best side post lockdown. Still, losing three semi-finals (League Cup, FA Cup and Europa League) has left Rashford eager to kick on.

"I wouldn’t rule us out [of a title race]," he said. "I think if we perform as we did in spells of last season, we can definitely surprise a few people.

"We can go into this season feeling more confident than we did last season to just give it our best and try to keep improving to get to the level where we should be.

"We had a lot of momentum [last season] and we won a lot of games, but you win games to win trophies and in the end we didn’t manage that.

"Last season we had three semi-finals, but we didn’t quite manage to get over the line. So that’s our main target now to make sure those semi-finals turn into trophies."

"'It’s all about following in players’ footsteps. At United they give you that opportunity'"

Rashford also discussed his footballing heroes growing up - with United legends unsurprisingly dominating the local lad's list of icons - and how, from a young age, he was drawn to those who displayed a sense of 'freedom' on the pitch.

"My favourites were people like [Paul] Scholes, [Ryan] Giggs, [Wayne] Rooney, [Ruud] Van Nistelrooy," he said. "I used to watch Thierry Henry a lot as well and Ronaldinho.

"I’ve always liked those who play with freedom. Even when I started at United’s academy at six or seven years old, I used to watch and learn from those who showed me that freedom."

When asked how much of manager and fellow striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's career he saw, he replied: "I didn’t watch him live as much as I would’ve liked to!

"I remember the backend of his career from going to games early on, but most of it is just from clips.

"In United’s academy, they are very big on tradition and we’d always watch games from years ago and study the history of the club. 

"It’s all about following in players’ footsteps and showing you what that career path looks like. At United they give you that opportunity."

On which name Rashford used to get on the back of his United kit growing up - the ultimate sign of hero worship - there wasn't a standout candidate, perhaps except his own.

"Everyone knew I loved United, so at Christmas, birthdays, they knew just to get me different kits with different players, so I’ve ended up with loads of different ones," he admitted.

"I did have Rooney on one, as he was one of my favourite players.

"To be honest, when I could get a name on the back, I often used to just pop my name on there!"

Marcus Rashford is a Coca-Cola ambassador and stars in the new ‘Make Your Home the Home End’ campaign giving fans the chance to win their Premier League new season shirt on special packs of Coca-Cola.