Manchester United have signed two players so far this summer but they have yet to see one of those in action as Joshua Zirzkee is yet to make an appearance.
The Dutch forward recently returned to training at Carrington after enjoying extended holidays due to his prolonged international commitments.
There is much excitement about Joshua Zirkzee, who is coming off a star-making campaign where he enabled Bologna to qualify for the Champions League against all odds.
His importance will be crucial from day one, even more so after Rasmus Hojlund’s injury makes him effectively the only senior striker at the club.
However, things weren’t always this rosy for him, and he has now revealed a Manchester City legend was the person who revived his career.
Joshua Zirkzee’s saviour
Before the Dutchman found his football calling in Bologna and leveraged it to earn a move to Old Trafford, Zirkzee had already made it to the big leagues as a teenager.
He has joined Bayern Munich straight from Feyenoord as a highly-rated superstar for the future. However, things didn’t pan out the way he would have hoped.
Intermittent first-team appearances led to scattered good displays and loan spells as Zirkzee’s career threatened to fizzle out.
That’s when a Manchester City legend entered the picture and became his saviour, unlocking Zirkzee’s full potential and he hasn’t looked back since.
For the 2021/22 season, Zirkzee was on the second loan spell of his Bayern career, this time at Anderlecht. He had already failed at Parma, where an injury restricted him to just four appearances.
At Anderlecht, he found a comforting voice in then-Head Coach Vincent Kompany. Zirkzee scored 16 goals and provided nine assists in just 34 league starts and the machine was well and truly humming.
In an interview with The Mirror, he spoke about Kompany’s influence on his career: “Kompany was the coach who explained so much to me about the game and the small details.
“That year was very important for me development and he made sure I played all the time. I took some significant steps forward during that season. Things went so much better for me.
“At Bayern, I wasn’t that player. There, I was too much in awe. I should have believed in myself. I think back then I wasn’t even half the player I am now.”
Joshua Zirkzee at Man United
United have clearly bought a player who has already seen a lot of peaks and troughs despite being just 23 years old. That helps the player maintain perspective and work hard every day.
Zirkzee’s story is also another example of how important it is to be at the right place at the time under the right person’s guidance.
In Kompany and Thiago Motta, he found two coaches who recognised his talent and molded the team to maximise his abilities, which, in turn, unlocked the player’s full potential.
Erik ten Hag will hope to do the same when Zirkzee makes his debut start vs Manchester City in the Community Shield.
As the player puts it himself, he wasn’t even half the player back then that he is today. The chance to prove that begins with arguably the toughest fixture in English football.
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