The Rashford family have always adhered to a very common mantra: the cream always rises to the top.
Even through the darkest times, of which Marcus Rashford has had to endure more than most, their resilience never wavered.
Two years ago, Rashford was left out of the England squad for the 2024 European Championship. He was being booed not just by his own supporters, but by former United stars. His Manchester United dreams lay in tatters, without having garnered half the trophies he seemed destined for. Those closest to him even felt the once hometown hero was being unfairly targeted, even bullied, by opinionated ex-Old Trafford heroes.
A life-saving loan to Barcelona later, and the cream has surfaced once more. Rashford has not only earned a spot back in the England squad for the summer, but he has his No 11 shirt in tow, and a genuine chance of being in the starting XI against Croatia.
Rashford’s darkest days
Rashford was in a “bleak place” in early 2025. The club he adored had effectively washed their hands of him after the academy graduate admitted he’d be open to a new challenge. There were disciplinary problems. Then manager Ruben Amorim added to the embarrassment, insisting he would rather put his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach on the bench than the forward, due to lack of effort in training.
Often training away from the first team, Rashford’s astronomical wages, agreed 18 months previously after he had plundered 30 goals in a single season for United, meant his escape routes were limited.
A temporary loan to Aston Villa did not become the panacea to his stagnating career Rashford and his family had hoped. Hansi Flick and Barcelona, however, offered a final olive branch. It still seemed like a tall order: a supposed ill-disciplined forward on the wane, trying to break into one of Europe’s elite teams, in a foreign land.
Instead, through the hard graft that Rashford has never been shy of – despite the common misconception some online memes of him walking on the pitch have created – the brave move has given the 28-year-old a new lease of life. So much so he is desperate to stay.
Everyone at Barcelona wants the same. It is just the financials involved, with his huge salary to negate, that is preventing Barca from exercising the £26m option included in last season’s loan to make his stay in Catalonia a permanent one.
Nevertheless, what has happened over the past 12 months has saved Rashford’s career.
‘The cameras were always on him’
He needed the freshest of starts, something emigrating can do. Insiders bemoan how, back in Manchester, Rashford would have a tail on his car just going to training. Simple pleasures such as going to a shop were fraught with obstacles. A phalanx of photographers was never too far away.
In Barcelona, Rashford decided against living in the city and chose the quieter suburban life, on the beach, in Castelldefels. His family could visit, in peace, regularly – something very important to him.
“In Barcelona, he was just one of many stars,” an insider says. “In Manchester, all the cameras were always on him, good and bad.
“In Spain, he could do whatever he wanted in relative peace. Even when he did get recognised, there weren’t paparazzi everywhere. The press treat people very differently in Spain.”
Having his girlfriend, Lucia Loi, in Barcelona with him helped the settling-in process. The pair met in school but had separated after previously getting engaged. Little is known about their relationship, but Loi was there, with the Rashford family, on the pitch as Barcelona lifted the La Liga title at the end of the season – a success clinched thanks to a stunning Rashford free-kick, against Clasico rivals Real Madrid.
A tactical tweak
Rashford has been getting used to the language and even understands some Catalan, but the Barcelona dressing room tongue, from Flick and several players, is English, which has also aided the transition.
He has also been able to flourish in Spain as a result of being deployed, in the main, from wide positions. Contrary to popular belief, mainly as a result of that 30-goal season, Rashford has always been a winger. As well as plundering 15 goals in all competitions last season, despite not always being a regular starter, he also registered 11 assists.
Sashaying down the flank became his trademark. His mazy marauder for England in the last batch of friendlies was a rare moment where supporters got off their seats at Wembley.
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Thomas Tuchel is a huge fan. Since taking charge, the German instantly restored a player who had one cap in the previous 17 months to the squad. And while a host of bigger names have been left at home this summer, it is understood Rashford was one of the first to earn their ticket to the United States.
It is, ironically, between him and new Barcelona forward Anthony Gordon for a starting spot against Croatia. There will be no animosity from Rashford towards the man who could deny him a longer Barcelona stay, though.
“He will be the first to welcome Anthony, and say you will love it here,” a source close to Rashford says. Such is the inescapable fact that without Barcelona, Rashford wouldn’t be here now.
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