More than 75,000 fans leapt in delight as Federico Macheda
scored Manchester United's last-gasp winner against Aston Villa at Old
Trafford on Sunday - but most probably did not even know his name at
the start of the match.
Even club captain Gary Neville
admitted afterwards he had never seen him before but said he was
grateful for his stoppage-time goal that gave United their memorable
3-2 win.
The 17-year-old made his debut
as a 61st-minute substitute for Nani. He looked impressive from his
first touch before scoring the goal that took United back to the top of
the Premier League table.
He was then booked for running
into the crowd and hugging his father in delight and finished the
afternoon being named man of the match.
He has been scoring regularly
for United's youth and reserve teams since joining the club in
September 2007 after developing through Lazio's youth system.
Born in Rome, he signed
professional forms last August and is regarded as one of the most
promising young prospects of Italian soccer.
Known as "Kiko", United's
website says: "He is strong on the ball, has good positional sense in
the box and his clinical finishing meant manager Alex Ferguson gave him
a Champions League squad number midway through the 2008/09 campaign."
Macheda told Sky Sports News: "Scoring a goal like that - I really enjoyed it."
Asked what Ferguson said to him
when he sent him on, he replied: "Play simple, just play. When I got
the ball I just wanted to score."
United skipper Neville praised the youngster's performance.
"We are grateful to him -- the
quality he showed at the end was unbelievable. I had not seen him
before today but he's a great finisher and you'd want it to fall to him
in the box."
Ferguson, though, kept it all in perspective.
Asked what he said to him
afterwards, the United manager replied: "Well done. He'll need to keep
his feet on the ground because he will get a lot of publicity over the
next few days and he'll need to handle that."
