7 former Man Utd players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024

Plenty of players – the great and not-so-great – have turned out for Manchester United down the years – but you’ll be surprised at some of those still active in 2024.

You know Ashley Young is still turning out for Everton, you know Danny Welbeck is in the process of evolving into his final and most powerful form down at Brighton, you know Chris Smalling has reinvented himself as Smalldini over in Rome.

But did you that these seven United old boys were still kicking a ball in anger?

Radamel Falcao

The man they call El Tigre Radamel Falcao is 38 years of age and he’s still scoring goals in exchange for cash. He’s back in his native Colombia with Millionarios, following a relatively barren spell at Rayo Vallecano.

Falcao’s great-grandfather was from Selby in North Yorkshire—bet you didn’t know that. We very nearly could’ve had El Tigre leading England to World Cup glory (probably).

Falcao’s great-grandfather was tragically murdered in 1960 when his fruit company was liquidised and he was killed for the money he was on his way to processing.

Nani

Nani has played all over the place—ten different clubs spanning three continents—and he’s still at it. The Portuguese winger’s United career came to an end in 2015, following a loan spell back at his previous club Sporting CP. He then embarked upon a rockstar-esque world tour that took in:

Fenerbahce, Valencia, Lazio, Sporting (again), Orlando City, Venezia, Melbourne Victory, Adana Demirspor, and, now Estrela Amadora back in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.

He was a born entertainer, Nani, but he’s never ever going to beat the time he tapped in a Cristiano Ronaldo goal-bound shot whilst stood in an offside position, meaning that both Ronaldo and Portugal were robbed of a goal, to Ronaldo’s very clear and obvious chagrin.

Poetry in motion.

Chicharito

Javier ‘Chicarito’ Hernandez Balcazar is a goal guy. That’s his whole thing—goals. Like a Mexican Gary Lineker.

There aren’t many players who make the jump from Guadalajara to Manchester United—just the one, actually—so you’ve got to hand it to United’s scouts back in 2009.

Sending your chief scout to Mexico for the best part of a month, because of a tip-off from a Mexico-based scout, is quite the gamble.

Chicharito had four solid years at United, often coming on as a sub, before a loan at Real Madrid. His most prolific years came at Bayer Leverkusen and LA Galaxy respectively, those seasons sandwiching spells at West Ham United and Sevilla.

Hernandez has returned to Guadalajara now, where it all began for him, presumably as a sort of lap of honour on his career.

Shinji Kagawa

Hands up if you knew Shinji Kagawa was playing for Sint-Truiden in the Belgian Pro League during the 2022-23 season.

Put that hand down.

Kagawa was a baller and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Sure, his best work wasn’t done at Manchester United, but many few players’ best work has been since Alex Ferguson called it a day. The Japanese playmaker was superb during both of his spells at Borussia Dortmund.

Cc: Jadon Sancho

Shinji is back at his first senior club Cerezo Osaka in 2024, after a 14-year European adventure.

READ NEXT: An XI of still-active greats that were already full internationals before Lamine Yamal was born

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Sir Alex Ferguson used in his last Man Utd season?

Rafael

Rafael da Silva, Brazilian right-back who played 170 times for United, came to England via Fluminense’s youth team, but he actually grew up a Botafogo fan. That’s nice, because the now 34-year-old Rafael signed for Botafogo in 2021 and is still playing there now.

Les Kershaw, former Manchester United Academy manager once described Rafael and his twin brother Fabio as, “when they got knocked down, they just got straight back up again and got on with it. They were like bouncing balls… very, very quick.”

Two bouncing balls playing football. Weird analogy.

As we mentioned, he’s 34 now, and he hasn’t played an awful lot of football since returning to Brazil, so all signs point toward the winding down of Rafael’s career.

Fabio

Rafael’s identical twin brother Fabio is also still playing football, and is also back in Brazil, although not at he and his brother’s favourite club Botafogo. Fabio signed for Ronaldinho and Luis Suarez’s former team Gremio in 2023.

The twins are from Petropolis, just to the Northeast of Rio de Janeiro, otherwise known as The Imperial City.

 If you research Petropolis, you’ll notice that the Notable People section for the city on Wikipedia, which lists 18 people and two bands, includes Rafael, but not Fabio.

That is some absolute b*stardry from the Wiki gremlins.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Man Utd’s top Premier League goalscorer for every initial?

Adnan Januzaj

Our sources tell us that Adnan Januzaj isn’t even 30 years old yet, but we’re sceptical. How can that be? The lad was on the bench for Alex Ferguson’s last game as United manager. Time has gone all weird— don’t like it.

The Belgian winger is on loan at La Liga side Las Palmas, from parent club Sevilla. He was a regular with Real Sociedad until 2022 when he signed for Sevilla and spent most of his time on the bench before spending a season sitting on Istanbul Basaksehir’s bench.

Doesn’t turn 30 until next February. Bloody hell, eh?