Manchester United full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka has opened up on how his fledgling career almost ended before it began, years before his move to Old Trafford. Wan-Bissaka burst onto the scene as a 20 year old with Crystal Palace, with eye-catching performances that earned him a £50m switch to United in 2019. The youngster has now established himself as United’s right-back, becoming a regular fixture in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s set-up. However, it could’ve been far different for the 23-year-old if he continued down the path he started to follow as a young player in south London.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka said: “You meet people from different areas and you want to do what they’re doing because it looks fun, so I kind of got dragged into that. Playing with Crystal Palace, I started to not take it serious, stuff like diet. After school, I was there in the chicken and chip shop, fizzy drinks – the whole lot, you can name it. It was a crowd where they didn’t play football, so their situation wasn’t the same as mine, they didn’t have to go to training after school. I kind of got dragged into that. Palace spoke to my dad and they told me that it could be my last season. He spoke to me and I felt his pain, I felt it. Usually he’s lecturing me, but this one he was actually speaking to me and I’ve never seen him speak like that, so that’s when I knew it was serious. I thought this was my only chance, I can’t ruin it.”
Wan-Bissaka has now racked up a century of appearances at United, included 69 in the Premier League over the course of the past two seasons, missing just seven league matches in that time.
