Not too many people had heard of Federico Macheda before Sunday, but the Manchester United youngster looks like being in the headlines for several years to come.
The 17-year-old was introduced as a second-half substitute as the champions chased the game at Old Trafford against Aston Villa and what an introduction to English football the Rome-born youngster made.
With the game in stoppage time at 2-2 Macheda picked the ball up on the edge of the box, escaped the clutches of a Villa defender with a Cruyff turn before curling a superb right-foot shot into the corner of the net to give United a crucial 3-2 win.
It was what dreams are made of as a debutant and a sublime piece of skill from the youngster, who was quickly slotted into United’s reserves this season after a fabulous goalscoring run in the youth team.
"I think this is the day of my dreams - to score a goal like that on my debut," said Macheda, known as ‘Kiko’, after his match-winning strike.
His goal fired United back to the Premier League summit and the champions are still the bookies’ 1.36 Premier League favourites to retain their crown.
United Under-18 boss Paul McGuinness rates Macheda, the starlet United picked up from Lazio, very highly indeed and his coolness in front of goal for the second string has also impressed reserve-team boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The fact that Sir Alex Ferguson had both Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov unavailable for Sunday’s game opened the door for Macheda - whose close control and cool head look certain to catapult him to future stardom.
By Phil Tomlinson
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