After 12 amazing seasons and a failed contract negotiation, 32-year-old Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea left English Premier League juggernauts Manchester United as a free agent in July 2023, and was immediately replaced by former AFC Ajax and Inter Milan shot stopper André Onana in the 2023/2024 Season. Nevertheless, recent sources have indicated that David de Gea’s career at the Red Devils is bound to take a dramatic U-turn, as the former United no. 1 is tipped to become Onana’s replacement when the latter is on duty for the Cameroon national football team in next year’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations at the Ivory Coast.
De Gea to Replace Onana for United During the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations?
Since completing his £43.8-million move to Manchester United from Italian Serie A outfit Inter Milan, André Onana has come under fire for his under par performances for the 13-time English Premier League winners, having conceded 20 goals in 13 matches in all competitions in the 2023/2024 Season thus far. The shot stopper’s struggles to adapt into the English football has prompted questions towards manager Erik ten Hag, on whether the 53-year-old Dutchman was wrong to replace long-time no. 1 of the Red Devils and last season’s English Premier League Golden Glove winner David de Gea with the Cameroonian this year.
David de Gea, who left Manchester United after a 12-year stint with the club last summer, is now a free agent despite some offers across Europe and even the oil-region Saudi region. According to many reports, the player who will turn 33 in a few weeks’ time had been considering about calling it a career, should he not able to secure a deal with any major European clubs in the near future. Nevertheless, the narrative of not seeing David de Gea playing professional football in the continent again might soon be taking a surprising turn, as many pundits and experts have been talking about a chance for him to return to his long-time club Manchester United early next year.
The reasons behind such news are not only due to Onana’s rocky start to his career, the player who saved a last-minute penalty against F.C. Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League last time around will also be unavailable for United for a month, when the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations is set to take place from 13th January 2024 to 11th February 2024. The 27-year-old’s absence would be a huge loss to ten Hag, whose side is fighting to get back to winnings ways after losing four matches already in this year’s English Premier League.
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David de Gea: Seventh All-Time Appearance Maker
David de Gea’s departure from Manchester United happened when ten Hag decided to retract the Spaniard’s signed contract with lower wages and look for a world-class goalkeeper who is also good with his feet to meet the modern-day football styles. But prior to his exit, David de Gea has shown longevity in his career at Old Trafford with 545 appearances in all competitions for the Red Devils across 12 seasons, ranking himself seventh in Manchester United’s all-time list for most appearances, with the other six being Ryan Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton, Paul Scholes, Bill Foulkes, Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney.
These 545 games started when David de Gea completed his transfer to United from Spanish La Liga team Atlético Madrid, whom the player graduated from as a youth, and the £18.9-million deal to England was a British record fee for a goalkeeper. Although the skinny David de Gea did struggle in his first seasons in the physical English game with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils, he managed to find team and individual successes in the league, domestic and European club football competitions afterwards.
David de Gea’s career at Old Trafford in the latter stages was plagued with inconsistencies and frequent managerial movements within the club, but he continued to became a pillar and dressing room leader at Manchester United, winning a couple of Premier League Golden Gloves, five PFA Team of the Year inclusions, and four Manchester United Players’ Player of the Year in addition to eight trophies with the Red Devils in 12 years.
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Andre Onana’s 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝟰 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 🆚 David de Gea’s 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟰 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 at Manchester United
📉 Conceded
📉 Clean sheets
📉 Save %
📈 Passes
📈 Passing accuracy pic.twitter.com/clye58R5Ao— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 6, 2023
Should David de Gea Return to Manchester United?
With only 25-year-old Altay Bayındır and 37-year-old Tom Heaton available on the bench for Manchester United when Onana is away with the Cameroonian national team next January, it would be a no-brainer to think that the Red Devils would definitely need a world-class replacement during that one-month period. Considering there are not much options in the free agent market at the moment, ten Hag could just revert his decision and give de Gea a a chance to return to the club for a short-term deal.
On the other hand, if United does extend the olive branch to David de Gea, spectators have been weighing on the opportunity and took to the internet to convince the 32-year-old Spain international to look away, since the club and ten Hag ruthlessly ousted him from Old Trafford via the retracted contract incident earlier this year.
Now, all these leave us to a few questions and we would like to throw the ball to our dear readers at OtherLeague.com: Do you think Manchester United should turn to David de Gea for his goalkeeping abilities once again, and if you are David de Gea, would you consider a chance to return to the club that mercilessly gave you the boot after 12 years of long and faithful services? Feel free to comment at the following section now!