There was something distinctly, balletically Berbatov-esque about the way Joshua Zirkzee led the Everton defence in a merry dance during Manchester United’s thumping 4-0 win on Sunday.
A flick around the corner here, a little backheel there, plus a second and third Premier League goal for good measure either side of half-time.
This was Joshua Zirkzee’s most complete performance as a Manchester United player. And a display so effortless in its elegance that even Dimitar Berbatov himself, if he was watching on from home, may have wondered for a second if he had accidentally tuned in to one of his own YouTube compilations compilations.
And, speaking of YouTube, Zirkzee’s swaggering, unflustered, everything-at-his-own-speed approach was one he honed watching football’s great entertainer bamboozle defenders over in Barcelona.
Ronaldinho, a footballer so unique in the modern era and so god-like gifted he could perfect the ‘flip-flap’ in flip flops, was someone YouTube highlight reels were simply invented for after all.
And while Zirkzee’s brace made headlines as Ruben Amorim’s Man United breezed past Everton, the chest touch and swivel pass in the build up to Marcus Rashford’s second of the day was a piece of skill Ronaldinho himself would have been proud of.
Manchester United’s Joshua Zirkzee opens up on Ronaldinho admiration
“Ronaldinho, for me, was probably the biggest inspiration for me,” Zirkzee tells Man United’s official website. “He just brought that joy to the to the pitch [and] made you want to do the same thing, you know?
“I’m from the era where we didn’t play PlayStation. We just played outside. But YouTube just was just hitting the computers and everything and I think he was one of the first guys that was that you had videos of him on YouTube.
“That was probably the only thing we watched back then on YouTube!”
What might have been had Zirkzee arrived onto the earth a few years later? Perhaps that Ronaldinho obsession would have been replaced with a penchant for edited pop songs with goats bleating out the chorus, or a love of ‘liminal spaces’.
Fortunately for Manchester United – belatedly seeing the benefit of Zirkzee’s ‘nine-and-a-half’ capabilities – it was football, particularly one buck-toothed Brazilian, that would grip the Dutchman in his formative years surfing the web.
And when his former Bologna coach Thiago Motta mentioned Zirkzee in the same sentence as Ronaldinho during breakout Serie A campaign for both manager and player in 2023/24, all those hours he spent obsessing over every flick of the Ballon D’Or winner’s gold-plated boots had clearly paid off.
Zirkzee was likened to Ronaldinho at Bologna
“He said his idols are Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gabriel Batistuta, who are two excellent players,” former Camp Nou stalwart Motta told reporters in February. “But, seeing him day-to-day, he reminds me of the Ronaldinho I played with at Barcelona.
“But I cannot compare him to anyone. He is just Joshua, and he is special.”
“That’s probably one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever had,” Zirkzee replies, nine months on. “And that coach definitely has a very very special place in my heart.”
Amid reports claiming that Juventus could look to reunite Motta and Zirkzee, the Dutchman obvious admiration for the man who took over at the Allianz Stadium after leading Bologna to the Champions League may spark a renewed flurry of speculation.
But, within the walls at Old Trafford, the message is that Manchester United remain fully convinced by Joshua Zirkzee.
That well-taken, confidence-boosting brace against Everton was one big step towards repaying that faith.
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