10 Premier League rival players who grew up as Manchester United fans | OneFootball

Manchester United are one of the biggest football clubs on the planet - perhaps even the biggest. The Red Devils are certainly one of the most successful clubs in world football, and it is no surprise to hear that millions of football fans are fiercely loyal to the English giants.

The club themselves believe their supporter base to exceed one billion people across the world. Fans travel from far and wide to watch them play on a weekly basis. Sir Alex Ferguson's dynasty at the helm is a big reason behind a lot of modern-day fans feeling an affinity for Man United, and logic suggests that a lot of current football players would have grown up during this era of dominance. There are a number of Premier League players - past and present - to have lined up against the team they most admired at a younger age.

With that being said, GIVEMESPORT have taken a look at 10 rival players who previously supported Manchester United while growing up. See the full list below.

10 Joe Allen

Premier League clubs: Swansea City, Liverpool, Stoke City

We start with a player that represented Man United's most bitter rivals, Liverpool. Joe Allen was a very neat and tidy midfielder who helped Swansea City to Premier League promotion in 2011 before becoming a solid midfielder player in the English top-flight and earning a move to Anfield as he moved with manager Brendan Rodgers. It may have taken Allen a bit of time to get used to life at the Merseyside club, as he was once a Manchester United fan.

Per the Express, Allen waited until he had left Liverpool to join Stoke City to reveal that he was a United supporter in his younger days, as he said: "You know what, don't tell anyone, but I was a Man U fan as well." During the same Q&A, the man affectionately known as the 'Welsh Xavi' jokingly claimed: "It was a bit tough for me to score that goal," after netting in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford for Stoke.

9 Cole Palmer

A product of the Manchester City youth system, and a man that scored at the Theatre of Dreams in a Chelsea shirt during the 2023-24 campaign, Cole Palmer is unlikely to be very popular within the Man United fan base. With limited first-team opportunities at the Etihad, the Englishman moved south to represent the west London club in 2023 and he hit the ground running in a struggling Chelsea team. He may have even earned some grace with the Red Devils' supporters with a late equalising goal and extremely cold celebration against his former club - Man City - in a 4-4 draw.

After finding the net in the aforementioned game against United at Old Trafford, the attacking midfielder appeared to be holding back in his celebrations, as commentator Jon Champion explained: "On the ground where his heroes used to play, he grew up a Manchester United fan, he marks his first appearance at his Theatre of Dreams with a very important goal." The below image of Palmer wearing a United top as a child also surfaced online, confirming that he was a big fan.

8 Aaron Ramsey

Aaron Ramsey was once seen as a future star and the Welsh midfielder was offered the opportunity to join his father's favourite team. Ramsey was being tracked by both Man United and Arsenal while playing for Cardiff City, and the midfielder told FourFourTwo: "It was a strange time in my life, to have two teams I’d watched so much as a child showing interest in me. I spoke to both managers on the phone a few times. I was 17 years old and I was getting voicemails from Fergie and Arsene Wenger! It was mad."

Despite explaining: "I was always a Cardiff supporter, but my dad was a Manchester United fan and I watched them quite a lot with him," the midfielder opted to join Arsenal after his discussions with the legendary managers of both massive clubs. That decision did prove to be successful as he became a top performer for the Gunners during his tenure, although he likely would have a Premier League trophy to his name had he moved to Manchester instead.

7 Michael Essien

Premier League clubs: Chelsea

What could have been? Michael Essien came very close to joining United when he was 17-years-old and the Ghanaian described how excited he was about the potential move to the Premier League giants as he is quoted by the Daily Star as saying: "When they offered me a one-week trial I just couldn't believe it, I was so happy. I remember being there and thinking 'Wow, this is the biggest club in the world'."

One of the big reasons behind this adoration for the 20-time English champions was later revealed to be due to a former United captain. Essien revealed: "My biggest hero was Roy Keane. I just loved the way he used to play, his attitude and commitment." He went on to play in England years later - but for Chelsea - meaning Essien had many tussles with man United midfielders, but deep down he may have still wished he was wearing the iconic red shirt himself.

Premier League clubs: Leicester City, Tottenham

James Maddison has represented one of the best signings of the 2023-24 season. The ex-Leicester City man has been a highly sought-after property for top Premier League sides, and Spurs decided to make the move in the aftermath of the Foxes' relegation to the Championship in 2023. Manchester United opted to sign fellow Englishman - Mason Mount - but they perhaps should have looked in Maddison's direction instead to fill the attacking midfield void Erik ten Hag was looking to fill. It's still early days for both men at their respective new clubs, but the Tottenham man has the edge in terms of performances early on.

It was an English icon that sparked a young Maddison's love for Man United, as the 26-year-old told talkSPORT: "In my early football days, I was a Manchester United fan and [Beckham] was at the forefront of that. He was the guy on the back of my shirt, I went into the garden practising his free-kicks. The amount of times in school lessons I'd be watching David Beckham free-kicks on YouTube, it was silly really."

5 John Stones

Premier League clubs: Everton, Manchester City

One of the best centre-backs on the planet used to be a United supporter, and while he is the only man on the list to not have publicly stated his former passion for the Red Devils, it has been heavily speculated that this was the case. John Stones was incredible for Pep Guardiola's dominant Man City side that won a historic treble in the 2022-23 season with his new role seeing the England international stepping into midfield to partner Rodri.

There was a chance of Stones heading to the other side of Manchester when he left Everton. Former United boss, Louis van Gaal, admitted that he attempted to bring the young defender into the club in 2015, as he claimed, per The Mirror: "I remember seeing him as a young defender – I thought he was fantastic and blessed with a great personality. This was the reason I wanted to sign him when at Manchester United. I would’ve loved it if he came, but he chose Manchester City."

4 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Premier League clubs: Arsenal, Chelsea

Arsenal and Man United used to have a massive rivalry as the two most successful clubs in the first 15 years of the Premier League, with Ferguson and Arsene Wenger's sides going to battle on the pitch. The rivalry has cooled down slightly since those days, so much so that a former Gunner was comfortable in admitting that he used to support United when he was younger. That would never have happened in the early 2000s. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was a clinical marksman during his time at the Emirates - scoring 92 times in 163 appearances in all competitions - but it was another English club that he admired at a younger age.

That admiration came from the deadly striking duo of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole that lit up Old Trafford in the late 1990s, per the Metro. The Gabon international explained: "I remember the duo, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke. The team was sick at that time, I think this was the first team I supported." While Aubameyang was firing in goals for Arsenal, United were struggling to find a consistent and reliable number nine. Imagine they had brought in Aubameyang, using the lure of following in the footsteps of Yorke and Cole.

3 Raheem Sterling

The man on this list that would be accepted by the United fan base with the most resistance. Raheem Sterling has been causing misery on the red side of Manchester for a long time now as the English winger has lifted the Premier League trophy four times since the Red Devils lasted held the biggest prize in the land in 2013. Not only has Sterling been winning honours that United have been starved of for over a decade now, but he was doing so for the team once considered to be merely 'Noisy Neighbours' - Manchester City. Factor in that Sterling began his senior career as a Liverpool player, and he is possibly the most disliked former United fan of them all.

Sterling revealed to the Mirror that he was a Man United fan growing up and was even present as the club lifted the FA Cup trophy in 2007. Speaking in 2019, the now Chelsea forward revealed: “I shouldn’t really say this — not now, definitely not now! — but when I was young I was a massive United fan. I had an old United kit, from when they won the last FA Cup [2007]." He was playing for Man City at the time, so it was a brave move to declare a previous love for the Citizens' fierce rivals.

2 Heung-min Son

Premier League clubs: Tottenham

Man United will no doubt be kicking themselves that the club never made the move to sign Heung-min Son before the Korean sensation signed on the dotted line for Tottenham in 2015. The winger has come back to haunt the club he once admired from afar, scoring four times in the league against the Old Trafford outfit. After Harry Kane's departure to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023, Son has become the leading light for Spurs, and Ten Hag's side could have done with his goalscoring prowess for the 2023-24 campaign.

His love for United stemmed from a compatriot who used to don the famous red shirt. Speaking to Pro:Direct Soccer, Son said: "Manchester United because obviously Ji-sung was playing. He’s a national hero. In Korea also they would say he has two hearts. He’s a national hero for me. He’s a good friend of mine." Park was a fantastic servant for the club between 2005 and 2012, and it is clear to see he was an inspiration to people back in his home country, including the current Spurs superstar.

1 John Terry

Premier League clubs: Chelsea

John Terry was at the heart of Chelsea's revolution in 2004 under José Mourinho. The rock-solid centre-back helped the Blues break up Man United's stranglehold on the English top flight at the time, along with Arsenal. The greatest centre-back in Premier League history could have actually ended up playing for the Red Devils, as Terry once revealed to Sky Sports: "When I was 14, I went up to Old Trafford for a trial. United's London scout, Malcolm Fidgen, took me in a car and I sat next to David Beckham the whole way. I had a schoolboy trial and they wanted me to join up. But Chelsea had offered me the same thing and so I turned United down."