Marcus Rashford (born 31 October 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Manchester United.

He’s in England’s provisional 26-man squad for Euro 2016 and preparing for an FA Cup final at Wembley, but how good is Marcus Rashford? According to Adam Bate who spoke to his former coaches at Fletcher Moss Rangers, Manchester United and England to find out…

This is a climate in which Chelsea teenagers can seek £50,000 per week contracts before their first-team debut; where youngsters are trailed as 'wonderkids' while YouTube remains their only witness. And yet, even against that backdrop, the emergence of Marcus Rashford at Manchester United retains its capacity to surprise.

Few had heard of the 18-year-old forward until Anthony Martial went down with an injury during the warm-up for the second leg of United's Europa League last-16 tie with FC Midtyjlland at Old Trafford in late February. Rashford was thrust into the limelight and promptly scored two goals as United turned the tie around.

Rashford made his Premier League debut against Arsenal three days later; he again scored twice and provided the assist for the other goal in a 3–2 home victory, making him the third youngest scorer for United in Premier League history after Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck.[10] On 20 March, Rashford scored the only goal in the Manchester derby, his team's first away league win over Manchester City since 2013. Aged just 18 years and 141 days, Rashford made his mark as the youngest ever scorer in a Manchester derby in the Premier League era.

Almost three months on and Rashford has eight senior goals to his name, an FA Cup final to look forward to and a place in Roy Hodgson's provisional 26-man England squad for Euro 2016. But even after this announcement, Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate still felt moved to describe Rashford's ascent to the top as "very random".

However, an extraordinary journey should not be mistaken for a fluke. When Louis van Gaal named Rashford among his substitutes for a Premier League game against Watford in December of last year, he described the player as a "fantastic talent" and behind the scenes there has long been an awareness of his vast potential.

Indeed, the player's willingness to listen is perhaps Rashford's most endearing quality as far as the Dutchman is concerned. Horrocks used to tell him that listening is the best learning tool. "I'd get a bit moralistic with them and tell them that God gave them two ears and one mouth," explained Horrocks. It will have been good preparation for dealing with Van Gaal.

"He's very focused on his work and that I admire when you are so young and there is so much attention now," said the United boss recently. "When you have criticism he can cope with criticism also. He can say: 'Yes, manager, you are right and I have to do that.' I think it's fantastic because not a lot of players can see their self-image in a match."

Van Gaal did stop short of embracing the comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo, a player who took 70 games to score his eighth goal for United. But he happily named Rashford in the same breath as Patrick Kluivert and with Sir Alex Ferguson calling the teenager "a sensation and one of the best in years" there will be those worrying about the growing expectations.