The match between Man Utd and Galatasaray tonight witnessed the Old Trafford reunion of an old Man Utd person, Wilfried Zaha. Speaking of Zaha, people always think that his career would have been very different if he had not chosen to become a Red Ԁevil.

When Wilfried Zaha, on his 20th birthday, danced in front of Peterborough United’s defense and contributed greatly to Crystal Palace’s 2-1 victory, on the home team’s coaching bench, there was a meticulous person. Take notes without stopping. This person soon recognized Zaha’s special talent, and was determined to present him as a gift to his much more famous father.

That coach is Darren Ferguson, and his father, you guessed it right, is the great Sir Alex Ferguson. That day was November 10, 2012. That night, Sir Alex received a call from his son. “Dad, this kid is really cool,” said the younger Ferguson, “he’s got everything you’re looking for.”

A few weeks later, Zaha was invited to meet the elder Ferguson in a hotel in central London. There was also Sir Bobby Charlton. Zaha was asked to keep it strictly confidential after the parties drew up a plan so that the boy from Croydon could soon start a new life at Manchester United.

Zaha came to Man Utd because of Sir Alex Ferguson, but did not get to work with him a day”He had great speed and one-on-one skills,” Ferguson’s assistant at the time, Rene Meulensteen, recalled. “In that sense, he possesses all the necessary qualities to be a Manchester United player.”

Nearly 11 years after that event, when Zaha returned to Old Trafford to prepare with Galatasaray to face the home team Man Utd in the Champions League, Man Utd fans were still divided in half because of this player.

Half think Zaha was unlucky. Maybe he was in the right place, but at the wrong time. In fact, when Zaha agreed to become a Man Utd player, he was excited partly because he believed he would be able to work with Sir Alex. What Zaha could not have expected was that just a few months after the meeting in London, the Scottish coach suԀԀenly announced his retirement. When Zaha officially arrived at Old Trafford, the team’s coach was a different person.

David Moyes did not trust Zaha from the beginning. Not impressed with what this young player performed in an hour of the Community Shield match with Wigan, he immediately removed him from the squad. Zaha did not play again until the end of October, in a match in the Carabao Cup. He was also able to play two more times in the Premier League, for a total of 28 minutes.

Zaha and David Moyes barely speak to each other

That winter, Moyes rejected an offer to loan Zaha from Palace. Instead, he pushed him to Cardiff City, a team struggling to stay in the Championship. As a result, Zaha was terribly disappointing, and Cardiff was still relegated. He returned to Man Utd with a growing sense of self-doubt. And it got even bigger when he met Louis van Gaal, who was brought in to replace the sacked Moyes before the end of the season.

Van Gaal doesn’t hate Zaha, but he believes that in his 3-5-2 system there is no place for a traditional winger like him. To gain a foothold, he was forced to learn how to play in a new position, specifically striker. That is not a position that brings out all of Zaha’s strengths. In addition, in that position, he had to compete with Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and then Radamel Falcao. The door to success is almost non-existent.

Of course Zaha “failed”. That summer, he and Shinji Kagawa had to practice separately while looking for a new team. The day he was informed that he had to leave, Zaha was not only not sad, disappointed or angry, but also felt “relieved”. “I felt liberated,” he said, “At that moment I thought, ‘thank you for saying it out loud and letting me restart my career’.”

The time at Man Utd was a bad time for Zaha

Not only the coaches, Zaha also did not receive support from his new teammates. Maybe because they are so busy with their own concerns in a chaotic period, they don’t have time to worry about others, especially when it’s just a young player like Zaha. Rio Ferdinand himself once admitted that “as a key player in the team, I should have done more for him.”

But there are also people who sаy that Zaha’s problem is himself. He was not strong enough to overcome the difficulties that almost every young player has to overcome. Instead of opening up to his seniors and new teammates to find sharing, he tends to withdrаw into himself. Zaha said that during his time at Man Utd, every time he had the chance, he returned to London, possibly to seek comfort from beautiful memories there.

But no matter what, Zaha could not become a “new Ronaldo” of Old Trafford in the way that Sir Alex and the fans expected him to be. Before coming to Galatasaray, he did not play for any other big team, but spent most of his career with Crystal Palace. Is Zaha sorry, is he angry? The answer from himself is “no”.

“I don’t mind,” he said on his return, “everyone has to go through a phase in their career that either takes advantage of development, or fades away. But I choose to turn that difficult period into into an opportunity to develop myself. There is no way I will let my career fade away.”

Zaha’s career did not fade away. And staying to meet Man Utd again for the 16th time in his career, whether intentionally or not, he will prove it.