Guillermo Varela, the promising youngster who never fulfilled his potential, now gets his chance of facing United in the Europa League quarter-final.
When Monday comes you will recognize one familiar face in the Copenhagen team, and that is Guillermo Varela, once the United top prospect at right back. It will definitely be an emotional encounter for the Uruguayan as his career so far has been full of ups and downs. However, it seems that at the Danish club, he is doing well and on Wednesday his cross found Wind who opened the scoring for Copenhagen and the road to a quarter final clash with United in Germany.
Varela was the first official signing of David Moyes in 2013, joining from Peñarol at 20 years old. The Uruguayan played for the Reserves (back then the U21’s) in 18 occasions (via Transfermarkt) with three assists to his account. The following season, a loan to Real Madrid Castilla (Real Madrid B) was in the books in which the player did quite well playing 33 times with them and Varela was on the verge of signing for the Spanish club, but the deal never went through as he returned to Manchester. The player was managed by current Real Madrid manager, Zinedine Zidane and was highly rated as he was compared to Daniel Carvajal based on his technical skills. According to the player in an interview with Ekstra Bladet, Real Madrid did make an attempt to sign him permanently, but United’s demands were apparently higher than they were willing to pay:
“As I heard, Real Madrid submitted a bid with Manchester United. But United demanded far too much money compared to only having to play for the B team. So Real Madrid weren’t willing to pay.”
Returning at Manchester United in 2015/16 season, Varela spent the season up and down from the first team to the Reserves, playing in the Premier League 2 13 times, scoring 2 goals, and assisting one. Although he featured only eleven times for the first team, Louis van Gaal (Manchester United manager at the time) trusted him in important games like the second tie against Midtjylland where he assisted Rashford’s second goal of the match and was involved in the next round matches against Liverpool.
Despite making a good impression in his first season with the first team, the new appointed manager felt it necessary that the young right back needed more minutes somewhere else, at Eintracht Frankfurt. The loan spell was a terrible move as the player spent the season most of the time in the sidelines, injured. However, the player did not even seize the moment when needed as his actions and attitude showed anything, but commitment as he chose a tattoo before a German Cup Final ruining every chance he had to stay there.
All was not lost for him as many United fans may remember him playing in the World Cup 2018 in Russia, earning a spot in his national team by impressing with his home club Peñarol once more. Probably, it was the best move for him as it helped him get back in Europe at the Danish side FC Copenhagen. In the current season, Varela has played 46 times and seems in a good shape ready for the next encounter for Manchester United.
Hopes were high for him back in the day as he went on trial while Sir Alex was still at the club, but sadly his attitude and probably bad luck on injuries were part of his unsuccessful move at United. In the end, not every player is bound to make it at the club and despite his talent, things went downhill. However, now he is ready for the challenge.
Back in 2019, he even spoke of a dream return at Manchester United either at the club or as opponents and this is bound to happen on Monday night, as per The Sun. Will it be a triumph for the Reds, or will Varela be on the winning side this time? Guess it will not take long until we find this out.
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