The last 10 Man Utd academy graduates who moved abroad – & how they fared

Manchester United’s academy blueprint is evident worldwide, with Red Devils alumni playing football in almost every corner of the world.

While not quite as storied an institution as they perhaps once were, Carrington still produces professional footballers at a seriously impressive rate, even if not all of them become stars at United.

Plenty drop down the English pyramid, but we’ve decided to focus on United’s last 10 academy graduates to have moved abroad when leaving the club permanently.

Note – we’ve only included players who moved directly to a club abroad; not those who have left United and since played abroad at some point in their careers, or have been sent abroad on loan.

Scott McTominay – Napoli

Joining his boyhood club’s academy at the age of five, McTominay has seen it all with United and lived the dream.

He went on to make over 200 appearances for the club after breaking through under Jose Mourinho, winning the League Cup and the FA Cup in the process while scoring a number of vital goals over the years.

A vocal online crowd has always been critical of the midfielder, but ask any match-going United fan and they’ll tell you exactly how highly they value his efforts through the years.

He left for Napoli this summer in £25.7million deal with United keen to bolster their midfield with a different profile, but they’ll absolutely miss his presence.

Mason Greenwood – Marseille

Greenwood joined Getafe on loan for the 2023-24 season after being charged with attempted rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and controlling and coercive behaviour. The charges were eventually dropped.

He joined Marseille on a permanent transfer in the summer of 2024.

Willy Kambwala – Villarreal

Kambwala spent three years in United’s youth system after signing in 2020 and did extremely well to make it to the first-team, given he suffered an 11-month injury layoff just weeks after signing for the club.

He was thrust into Erik ten Hag’s first team in December 2023, starting against West Ham amid an injury crisis, and held his own for the rest of the season before moving to Villarreal this summer in search of more regular senior football.

The French defender now finds himself partnering former United man Eric Bailly in defence for the Yellow Submarine.

Omari Forson – Monza

Another 2023-24 breakthrough, Forson made his debut in the FA Cup against Wigan and his Premier League debut away at Wolves, where he provided the assist for Kobbie Mainoo’s late winner.

United offered the forward a new deal at the end of the season, but he rejected and chose to leave the club for increased opportunities elsewhere, inking a four-year deal with Serie A outfit Monza.

Matej Kovar – Bayer Leverkusen

Another player United weren’t too pleased about losing, Kovar enjoyed a brilliant season on loan at Sparta Prague in 2022-23 and came back with his stocks high, only strengthened by an impressive showing in pre-season.

However, Andre Onana was signed to replace David de Gea as number one and so he opted to leave the club when Bayer Leverkusen came calling. Kovar made 17 appearances in all competitions as Xabi Alonso’s side won the Bundesliga and went all the way to the Europa League final, playing all but one game in the latter competition.

The jury is still out on Onana in Manchester. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but had Kovar stuck around, he might’ve been a lot closer to that number one jersey than he thought.

Zidane Iqbal – Utrecht

United fans were a little shocked to see Iqbal sold in the summer of 2023, considering he’d made his debut for the club in 2021 and looked seriously sharp in Ten Hag’s first pre-season at the club.

However, the midfielder struggled to find minutes throughout the 2022-23 campaign and thus was allowed to leave ahead of the 2023-24 season, heading to the Netherlands on a four-year deal.

Iqbal’s first season got off to a difficult start with injury, but things picked up in the second half of the campaign and the 21-year-old has already started three of Utrecht’s four league games this season.

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Joel Pereira – RKC Waalwijk

By the time Pereira left United permanently in 2021, he’d already been on loan no less than six times and was more than ready to leave the club permanently.

The goalkeeper joined Dutch side Waalwijk and spent two years with the club, but returned to England with Reading in the summer of 2023 and has made four appearances in League One so far this season, keeping two clean sheets.

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Timothy Fosu-Mensah – Bayer Leverkusen

The hype around Fosu-Mensah was real and for a short while it looked justified after he broke through under Louis van Gaal.

A series of unfortunate loans to Crystal Palace and Fulham didn’t quite go his way, tearing his cruciate ligament at the latter, and after a few more appearances for United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, he joined Bayer Leverkusen in January 2021, but again suffered another cruciate ligament injury.

The versatile Dutchman, now 26, is currently a free agent having not played a single minute of football in 2023-24 before leaving the German champions.

Angel Gomes – Lille

Gomes was meant to be the chosen one at United, following his record-breaking debut under Jose Mourinho in 2017, but he found first-team opportunities limited in the coming years and turned down a new deal at his boyhood club in 2020 in search of more opportunities.

That led the tricky midfielder to France, signing for Lille and spending a season on loan in Portugal with Boavista.

In the time since, Gomes has quietly blossomed into a brilliant player, putting his press resistance to use as a deep-lying playmaker and enjoying success under Paulo Fonseca.

He also proved pivotal to Lee Carsley in England’s under-21 setup as they won the European Championship in 2023 and won his first senior cap against the Republic of Ireland 12 months later.

The 24-year-old is out of contract at Lille next summer, thus the world is his oyster right now.

Adnan Januzaj – Real Sociedad

Following that brace against Sunderland under David Moyes, it was hard not to believe that Januzaj was destined for stardom.

However, potential doesn’t guarantee success and he got lost in the shuffle of a dysfunctional United in the coming years, never being able to develop from that initial breakthrough.

He left and signed for Real Sociedad in the summer of 2017 and enjoyed a strong start in San Sebastian, but his influence waned over the coming years and he signed for Sevilla on a free transfer in 2022.

Januzaj is still on the books at Sevilla, but has joined Las Palmas for the 2024-25 season, linking up with the likes of Oli McBurnie and Scott McKenna. Football is a funny old sport.