Amid Andre Onana and Sofyan Amrabat's struggles at Manchester United, their impact, or a lack thereof, should not come as a surprise given that most African players have not succeeded at Old Trafford.
As of the 2023/24 season, only 11 African footballers have represented United at senior professional level in the Premier League's modern era, with South African legend Quinton Fortune having been the first when he was signed from Atletico Madrid back in January 2000. Since the Bafana Bafana icon's arrival, he has been followed by the likes of Eric Djemba-Djemba (Cameroon), Manucho (Angola), Mame Biram Diouf (Senegal), Wilfried Zaha (Ivory Coast), Eric Bailly (Ivory Coast), Odion Ighalo (Nigeria), Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast), and Hannibal Mejbri (Tunisia).
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Onana and Amrabat are the two most recent additions, and it must be noted that the pair have had a miserable start to life in Manchester, with the goalkeeper being the subject of intense scrutiny following several high-profile errors. Expectations were high for the shot-stopper when he was brought in to replace club legend David de Gea at the beginning of the season for a hefty fee of €50.2 million (R1 billion) from Inter Milan. However, in his first 21 outings for the Red Devils, he has kept only seven clean sheets and conceded 34 goals in the process.
Fortune won three Premier League titles in six seasons at the Theatre of Dreams and made 126 appearances in total. Bailly is the only other African footballer to have registered more than a century of appearances for the club, although his spell was vastly underwhelming given his constant injury issues, which eventually led to the Ivorian being loaned out in 2022/23 before being offloaded as a free agent in July this year.
The only Nigerian to have played for United is Ighalo, but his time in Manchester left no lasting impression as he made only 23 appearances and scored five goals. Signed on an initial six-month loan, the centre-forward found the net in each of his first four starts but that was about as eventful as it got as his tenure was marred by the fact that he didn't score for United in the Premier League in 11 games that season.
Youngsters Diallo and Mejbri still have an opportunity to impress, but the former has not featured for the club this season due to injury. The latter has shown some promise but still has a long way to go, given that he has only played nine matches to date for the Red Devils.
It is worth noting that other the "Big Six" clubs in England have consistently had African icons in their teams, and many have etched their names into the history books of those respective clubs. Recent examples at Liverpool are Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, Chelsea had Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, Yaya Toure is a Manchester City legend, while Emmanuel Adebayor and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have each scored more than 60 goals for Arsenal.
The impact of Africans has been felt at many of the Red Devils' big rivals, thus it raises eyebrows that this has hardly been the case at Old Trafford. Although reasons for this apparent lack of success for African footballers at United are unique from player to player, Onana and Amrabat's time at the club so far could have been predicted judging by what history tells.
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It is not a lack of trying by the recruitment staff at United, though, as African superstars such Mane, John Obi Mikel, and Medhi Benatia all reportedly turned down moves to Manchester, going on to become icons at other big clubs.
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