Manchester United and Erik ten Hag released Axel Tuanzebe at the end of last season.
After spending time with Napoli in 2022 and Stoke City in 2023, Axel Tuanzebe was released by Manchester United at the end of the 22/23 season.
Despite infamously pocketing Kylian Mbappe in a Champions League clash back in 2020, it would never work out for Tuanzebe at Old Trafford.
He has since found home at Kieran McKenna‘s Ipswich Town, where he produced his best performance so far for The Tractor Boys in the FA Cup.
Axel Tuanzebe scores first-ever professional goal
At 26, Tuanzebe finally has his first-ever professional goal in football.
It came in a 3-1 win over AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup, where Tuanzebe scored in the 40th minute to put his side 2-1 up.
Tuanzebe was deployed at right-back for this fixture, a position that was briefly experimented with him during his tenure at Carrington.
FOTMOB suggest that he was also the best player on the pitch. This is reflected in some superb stats on the day:
- 90 minutes played
- 1 shot on target
- 1 goal
- 0 times dispossessed
- 7.4 rating
- MOTM
A fine performance from the English defender, but can this now be the catalyst to kick start his career again?
Can Axel Tuanzebe reignite his career?
It’s been hard going thus far at Ipswich for Tuanzebe, but this fixture could potentially be the rebirth of his career at the Championship side.
Before this game, he had only featured five times all season, with just 447 minutes under his belt.
Despite this being the cup – he evidently impressed. Former Manchester United coach and current Ipswich boss McKenna said the performance was great as a whole.
“It’s certainly job done,” Kieran told TownTV.
“In the third round of the FA Cup, you will always have a tough game so to get through you are going to have to do a lot of things well, so it’s a job well done.”
Tuanzebe was a key part of this. Let’s hope for his sake he’s considered more going forward.
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