FEDERICO MACHEDA thought Ravel Morrison was destined to go onto great things as a Manchester United prospect.
Macheda, 31, has described how the youngster would run circles round the Red Devils first team in training.
In an interview with former team-mate Rio Ferdinand, for his FIVE YouTube channel, the Italian reminisced about Morrison’s skills.
Macheda was asked which player from his age group he expected to have a bigger career than materialised.
He said: “Ravel Morrison. He was a great, crazy talent.
“This guy was crazy man. He would come up in the first team and start to dribble [past] everybody, and everybody was shocked.
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“When you watched him play you expected him to be the next [big] thing, you know, because he had everything.
“The Man Utd team then was crazy players, so to come up to the first team and do the things he was doing was just crazy.
“He would just go and get the ball everywhere and start to do crazy things.”
Ferdinand himself agreed with Macheda’s assessment.
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Rio added: “I told you guys. You don’t understand how good this kid was!
“He blew your mind. It is mad, everyone talks about [him] but it’s almost like you needed to be there to really see and understand what he was doing – and not only in the reserves.
“Sometimes if you’re coming back from injury or something like that you’d go and train with the reserves, he would do even more stupid stuff with the reserves. He’d play centre-back sometimes in training!”
Morrison’s career went south after the training sessions talked about by former Old Trafford buddies.
The Englishman never played more than 27 games for a team, despite moving to ELEVEN different clubs.
Three years at West Ham saw him loaned out three times.
Then four seasons at Lazio were wrecked by injuries and more loan deals.
Morrison recently completed a move to MLS side DC United – where he will reunite with former pal and manager Wayne Rooney.
The former United midfielder, now 29, has joined the American outfit on a one-year deal, with the option of a further season.
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Morrison’s transfer comes at the end of a successful season-long spell with Derby County.
While with The Rams, he was managed by Rooney and became a key player in their valiant fight against relegation.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk