Marcus Rashford will face an awkward reality when he returns to Manchester United as he is currently without a squad number. He last played for United in December 2024, subsequently spending time away on loan at Aston Villa and Barcelona.
The 28-year-old showed signs of returning to his best form at Villa before being loaned to Barcelona last summer. Rashford scored and assisted 14 goals apiece in all competitions as the Catalan club won La Liga but Barcelona opted not to trigger their £26million buy option. A further £40m release clause has also since expired for other sides.
Rashford is set to report back to United training after his summer break. The England international was part of the squad that earned a World Cup bronze medal, making six tournament appearances, including three starts.
Talks over pre-season return
Despite falling out of favour under former manager Ruben Amorim, Rashford’s camp have held positive talks with United over returning for pre-season. However, the forward faces a potentially awkward conversation with the United hierarchy over finding a new squad number after losing the number 10 shirt during his time away from Old Trafford.
The iconic number 10 was given to Matheus Cunha after his move from Wolves last year. It had been Rashford’s number since 2018, following in the footsteps of many United heroes such as Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Roy Keane.
History of shirt numbers
Rashford initially wore number 39 when he made his first team breakthrough in the 2015/16 campaign. He was subsequently handed the number 19 shirt for the next two seasons before being given the prestigious number 10. In 2018, Rashford tweeted about his new number: "Wearing the shirt worn by United legends, honoured." United boss Jose Mourinho explained the reason for giving the then-20-year-old the iconic shirt number. “He wanted it,” Mourinho told MUTV in 2018. “He always wanted it. Of course, he respected the big Rooney and then Zlatan wanted to have it. “Of course, he was in the shadow, waiting for the opportunity and now the shirt is empty. It's something fantastic for the kid, let's give the shirt to him.”
In his time away from Old Trafford, Rashford wore nine for Villa, a number he previously wore for United’s academy sides. He also sported the number 14 shirt during his season with Barcelona.
Available numbers
Both numbers from his respective loan spells are currently up for grabs at United. Aside from nine and 14, numbers 20, 21 and 24 are also available to Rashford within the top 25 slots. However, in terms of his other old United numbers, Bryan Mbeumo occupies 19 and youngster Tyler Fletcher wears 39 in Michael Carrick’s squad. Summer signings Andrey Santos and Youri Tieleman have taken 17 and 18, respectively, while new backup goalkeeper Karl Darlow will wear number 12.
