Prior to Manchester United’s new signing Anthony Martial even kicking a ball, there was quite a storm brewing around his whopping £36 million signature.
However, in fairness to the French international youngster since arriving from Monaco on deadline day, he’s answered the critics in the best way possible, striking three goals in his opening two Premier League games for the Red Devils.
Striking a brace against Southampton last Sunday after prviously scoring a goal to put the seal on a 3-1 United victory over arch-rivals Liverpool just a week earlier, it has been a fairytale start to life at Old Trafford for the 19-year-old.
The general feeling in the Football Transfer Tavern at the moment is that if Martial keeps up his excellent scoring record, people will start forgetting about the fee entirely whilst solely concentrating on his clinical edge in front of goal.
We’ve seen the likes of Liverpool absolutely waste £35 million on the panic signing of Andy Carroll in the past but where Martial is concerned, the early signs are good although he’ll want to achieve plenty more under Louis van Gaal as the season progresses.
With the Frenchman being the man on the lips of every Red Devils supporter right now, we’ve taken this moment to devise a list of five things you may not know about United’s third most expensive signing of all-time.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 things you didn’t know about Manchester United striker Anthony Martial.
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He started his career at the same club Patrice Evra & Thierry Henry did
Anthony Martial is in good company when it comes to French international’s, both past and present, who’ve also passed through the same youth ranks as the new United forward.
Back in 2001 when Martial was taking his first steps as a professional, he was signed onto the books of CO Les Ulis, a now seventh-tier French outfit who have become famous for helping produce and develop some of the country’s finest ever exports.
We all know that Martial has been likened to Thierry Henry in his playing style but the Arsenal legend was actually somebody else who passed through Les Ulis himself back between 1983 and 1989 while former Red Devil Patrice Evra was signed on at the same club between 1992 and 1993.
Arsenal flop Yaya Sanogo also represented Les Ulis between 2005 and 2006 although Martial won’t want to be emulating his time spent in England so far!
He once scored more goals than games played for Lyon’s youth ranks
Prior to signing for Manchester United, Anthony Martial was anything but a prolific marksman at the senior level having only scored 11 goals in his adult career in his time at Monaco.
Nevertheless, as an Under-17 product of his former club Lyon in the second season he was tied to the Stade Gerland club, Martial actually struck more goals than the number of games he played that season with the Frenchman boasting an overall tally of 32 strikes in just 21 fixtures.
Having been clinical in front of goal at such a young age, we’ve already seen evidence of this in the Premier League in his brief United career thus far.
He’s progressed through France’s youth ranks to the senior level faster than any other player
Having broken the record to officially become the world’s most expensive teenage signing of all-time at £36 million, this isn’t the only record Martial holds, not one jot!
He’s also been the fastest player to have progressed through all of the French international age groups to the senior level in the shortest period of time.
Completing that feat in just five years, Martial most recently made his senior international debut for Didier Deschamps’ Les Bleus outfit earlier this month when he came on as a substitute to replace Karim Benzema in a friendly international with Portugal.
Still yet to score at senior international level for France, his best age group goal haul came back between 2011 and 2012 when Martial struck nine goals in just 13 appearances for the French Under-17 side.
He’s completed more successful dribbles than any other teenager since last year
One of the most eye-catching stats that was retweeted and splashed across Twitter the day after deadline day on September 2nd was the fact that Anthony Martial had completed more successful dribbles (52) than any other teenager in Europe’s top five divisions since last year.
Not a bad stat to boast in your locker at all, we’ve already seen plenty of evidence to suggest that Martial likes taking on opponents and much like Thierry Henry, drifted infield from the left hand side when scoring his first ever Manchester United goal against Liverpool recently.
Being deployed as a number nine like his shirt number suggests right now, we saw Martial deployed in a left wing position when Monaco inflicted all that damage against Arsenal in the first leg of their last sixteen Champions League clash last season to accommodate Dimitar Berbatov so the young Frenchman is certainly versatile when it comes to his talents.
He is married to his childhood sweetheart with the couple expecting their second child
Despite just being 19-years-old and a relative baby in football terms, Martial is quite grown up when it comes to his personal life.
Already married to his childhood sweetheart Samantha, the couple already have a first child Toto and are currently expecting a second to boot.
With this close support network back home, perhaps this is yet another reason why the youngster has had so much strength of character to prove the doubters wrong while starting off his Manchester United career in the best way possible – scoring goals!
