Manchester United strengthened at right-back during the summer with the signing of Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich.
The Morocco international didn’t play particularly well against Liverpool in United’s most recent outing, but he looked solid in the first two games of the season against Fulham (1-0 win) and Brighton (2-1 defeat).
Mazraoui has operated in his preferred right-back role, while Diogo Dalot has been pushed to the opposite flank due to United’s lack of cover for injured duo Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia.
In a new interview with club media, Mazraoui opens up about a difficult period from his earlier days when he questioned whether he would ever make it as a professional footballer. He was playing for Jong Ajax at the time, the Amsterdam giants’ second time, as a teenager.
The versatile right-back reflects on a shift in mindset that triggered his remarkable rise in the beautiful game. Mazraoui went from Ajax to Bayern Munich and signed for United ahead of the 2024/25 season.
“When I became older and more mature, it was still, yeah, almost 50-50 [whether I would make it],” Mazraoui told Inside United. “I went and played professional football without a contract. And, what you said, it was do or die because, at that moment, you come to the point of no return.
“It’s either you go for it fully or that’s it. You will just make steps upwards or, from there on, it could be the end of your career, but you cannot even say your career as it was not even at the beginning.
“So that was a little bit the case when I became 18 or 19 years old and, from there on, something in my head just switched.
“It was just that I went fully for it,” he recalled. “And, yeah, from that moment on, I didn’t look back anymore about how I went through the stages and through the Academy, or even this moment.
“I didn’t look back anymore. I just looked forward. I had a goal and that was to fight for a contract and to be a professional footballer because I was just so close, I could smell it. And, yeah, if you don’t make it, it would be that you will regret that for the rest of your life. And I wouldn’t want to live with that.”
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