PANAJI
Manchester United's Anthony Elanga made his first-team debut in a pre-season friendly against Aston Villa. The Swede scored his first goal for the Red Devils against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the final game of the season. Since then, the 20-year-old put on some impressive performances and even made it to the Swedish national team for the World Cup qualifiers.
On Thursday, at the launch of the Manchester United and Apollo Tyres' "United We Play" grassroots initiative at Don Bosco College in Panaji, the winger spoke about his time at the United academy and gave a few words of advice.
"I'd say coming through the ranks of the academy was tough, wasn't easy. The advice that I'd give is to keep performing in training and you'll get rewarded in the end because the hard work never goes unnoticed. It's all about putting in the performances and you'll get the rewards in the end," Elanga advised youngsters across India growing up with the dream of playing for European clubs.
Elanga has often featured on the right wing for Manchester United but the arrival of Antony from Ajax for £86 million will limit his opportunities. United are stacked with quality wingers and upcoming youngsters. Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Antony are established names while the likes of Alejandro Garnacho, Facundo Pellistri and Amad Diallo (both on loan) have all impressed this season.
Every minute will be crucial for the Swede to gain the confidence of manager Erik ten Hag with the pool of talent at his disposal. The Goan asked Elanga about the competition for a starting place and whether there was pressure to perform.
"When you have competition it makes you want to work even harder, so when you get the opportunity to play, you want to take that opportunity. So for me, I take everything as a challenge. It's not pressure, it's pleasure," Elanga replied.
Anthony Elanga was also accompanied by David de Gea and Donny van de Beek. This is the first time footballers from the current Manchester United first-team squad have ever visited India. Spain's de Gea and Netherlands' van de Beek weren't called up for their respective teams in the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar while Elanga's Sweden failed to qualify for the tournament.
