Eighteen-year-old Ethan Wheatley made Manchester United history on Wednesday night.
The young striker made his debut in the 89th minute of the Red Devil’s 4-2 win over Sheffield United, which is momentous enough.
However, in doing so, he became the 250th member of the United academy to make a debut for the Red Devils.
He was given the honor as he has been a revelation for the Under 18s, scoring a brace in the Premier League Cup final versus Manchester City and a hat-trick in the recent 1-9 mauling of Liverpool.
The impressive form of the striker has led to interest brewing over taking the talented striker on loan to the Championship for the coming season.
However, according to The Mirror, he was back at school on Thursday morning, as he is currently “studying for a BTEC marketing extended diploma”.
United academy director Nick Cox said: “He’s been at school this morning. He never told me this, but I would suspect another motive is that it would feel pretty good walking into school having just made your Manchester United debut”.
“So I think that’s probably the reason – ‘I want to go because I want to feel nice’ – and I don’t blame him. Any young person would want to feel the same”.
Commenting on the momentous debut after a whirlwind week, the youngster said, “it’s a great club with a massive history, especially in the academy. It’s an honor to make my debut and that number 250”.
“There were a bit of nerves, but as soon as I was stripped and ready to go, I was excited. It’s not been a bad 24 hours”.
The Red Devils are hardly stocked with number nine options this campaign due to Anthony Martial’s prolonged injury, and it will be interesting to see if Ten Hag entrusts Wheatley to play any more minutes in the run-in of this Premier League season.
It is a guarantee that most fans would rather see what the history-making youngster can do than see Martial stroll around the pitch for the final time before he departs the club for good in the summer window as his contract runs out.
