He is not blonde neither is he white, but he has got a last name that rhymes with first name of the Detroit born rapper Eminem (Marshall Matters). Like Eminem, he is also a bundle of talent at a young age. Like Eminem, he got overlooked by a lot of the big guns with only one willing to take a £36M gamble on a 19 year old kid from France. 4 goals in 5 game plus some assists has seen that gamble to be a wise one.
So who is he?
First name, Anthony. Last name, Martial (Last name pronounced Ma-si-al). He was born in Massy, France on the 5th of December,1995. He started his footballing career at CO Les Ulis where at the age of 14 he was spotted by scouts from Lyon. He got signed by the French giants that same year, 2009. His second season at Olympique Lyonnais saw him score 32 goals in 21 games for the U-17 team. The feat saw got him a call up to the France U-17 team.
After a 4 year stint at Lyon, he completed a permanent move to AS Monaco for a fee of €5 million. He didn't exactly have an eye catching career at Monaco so little wonder eyebrows got raised and a lot of questions got asked when on the 1st of September 2015, he completed an exorbitant £36M move to Manchester United. A fee that could rise to £58M. The transfer fee broke the then current record fee paid for a teenager which was held by another United player, Luke Shaw. Even Louis Van Gaal, the United manager labeled the fee as ridiculous. I doubt if he can say the same now given his goal to game ratio since the move. He scored 2 goals on his debut in the EPL. One can't wish for a better debut.
So far, all the signs have shown he is the real deal.
It might be too early to really say so because we've seen player start with a bang and end with something akin to a fart at best. We can all agree that he can never be as poor as Falcao was at United given that he has already scored the same amount of goals in 5 games as Falcao did in a whole season. Only time can truly tell if he is a flash in a pan or the real deal.
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