Marcus Rashford and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer react to Shola Shoretire’s Manchester United debut

The 17-year-old was given a brief cameo off the bench against Newcastle (Pictures: Getty Images)

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is confident Shola Shoretire will have a long career at Manchester United after handing the teenager his debut, while Marcus Rashford is delighted to see another academy player given a chance to shine.

The 17-year-old attacker, who has been prolific for United’s youth teams, was given a short cameo off the bench in Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Newcastle, replacing Marcus Rashford in the 89th minute.

Solskjaer says Shoretire – who was also part of the squad that took on Real Sociedad in the Europa League – has been performing well in training and earned his chance to record a first Premier League appearance for United.

Shoretire replaced fellow academy graduate Rashford in the 89th minute (Picture: Getty)

Asked if it was good to see Shoretire make his debut and get some minutes under his belt, Solskjaer told MUTV: ‘Yeah of course. And he’s going to keep playing many games for us if he keeps doing what he’s doing.

‘He’s training really well, good boy with a good head on him. Hopefully he’ll have a good career with us.’

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Rashford, who also came through United’s academy, was also thrilled to see Shoretire make his debut, hailing the youngster, and believes he can be an example other players in the academy can look to emulate.

‘He’s even younger than what I was,’ Rashford told MUTV.

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‘But yeah it’s a top moment and I think when the young players do make their debut eventually, they actually kick on from that and hopefully we see the same from him and we’ll see him out on the pitch many more times.

‘He’s a player with a lot of quality and the more often he trains with us and plays with us he’s going to feel relaxed and then he can show his quality on the pitch.

Shoretire got several touches of the ball despite his late introduction (Picture: Getty)

‘I think in the academy they always emphasise following in footsteps, it’s something that I always took great acknowledgement of when I was a young player, wanting to get into the first team, follow in the footsteps of other academy attacking players, players that made the step up into the first team.

‘And it’s just a cycle really and hopefully the younger ones that are his age now they’ll see him playing and they’ll kick on and then hopefully we get more and more of them in.’

Daniel James added: ‘Shola’s been great, great in training, he deserves his chance. I think he’s only 16 still so he’s got so much to learn, but delighted for him.’

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