This weekend we were perusing the interwebs and thinking about the sudden ascendance of precocious 18-year-old Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford when we came across an interesting statistic:
Marcus Rashford has now scored with his first shot on his:
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) May 27, 2016
Whoa. We were aware that Rashford had generally killed it with only a few games under his belt but we had forgotten just how suddenly, and well, he had announced himself to the soccer world.
Thrust into a starting role in Manchester United's Europa League match against Midtjylland after Anthony Martial hurt himself in warm-ups, Rashford scored twice in a 5-1 victory that sent United marching toward defeat at the hands of Liverpool. This display earned Rashford the start in United's next Premier League game, against Arsenal, in which the youngster also scored twice.
Rashford's sudden rise caught the eye of Roy Hodgson, who gave Rashford the start for England in a Euro 2016 warm-up match against Australia. Rashford scored within three minutes.
This season, Rashford has had three major debuts, and in those debuts he has scored five goals. Four of his five Manchester United goals have come in debuts. His only England goal came in his debut (to be fair, he has only played one game), which was enough to secure his place at Euro 2016. How will his Euro debut go? We expect fireworks.
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus