7 Former Manchester United stars who are still playing

Modified Sep 08, 2018 19:19 GMT

#4 Nani

Sporting CP v Empoli FC - Pre-Season Friendly

When he joined Manchester United from Sporting CP in the summer of 2007, Nani was touted as the next Cristiano Ronaldo and there were many reasons why. The Portuguese was blessed with the same set of skills and speed and had a venomous shot in him. Yet lack of consistency meant that he never fulfilled his potential.

Nani went on to spend eight seasons at United, one of which was spent in loan, back at Sporting CP. He played 230 games and scored 40 goals during his time, winning four Premier Leagues, two League Cups, four Community Shields, one Champions League and one FIFA Club World Cup.

In July 2015, Nani joined Turkish side Fenerbahce and played 47 games, scoring 12 times. In July 2016, he joined Valencia where he scored five goals in 26 games. Next was a season-long loan at Lazio, where he hit the net three times in 25 games.

This season, he returned to where it all started for him, in a bid to revive his career – he is, after all, still 31 years old. Nani rejoined Sporting CP in July 2018 and has since scored two times in two games already.

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Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Abhinav Munshi