How 'unstoppable' Amad is making up for lost time at Man Utd

Football writer Alex Keble chronicles the long road to success for Amad, almost four years after his arrival at Old Trafford.

"It’s not my style to rush things," Amad told the Manchester United website in June 2021, just a few months after the young Ivorian, then aged 19, arrived from Atalanta for a reported fee of £37million.

"I know that I am young, that I need to develop slowly and just focus on improving myself each day, so I am patient."

But Amad’s path to the top has been so beset with difficulties - from injury setbacks, to loans, to limited opportunities under Erik ten Hag – that surely even he didn’t anticipate having to be quite this patient.

Finally, 47 months after joining Man Utd in January 2021, Amad has found the spotlight.

It’s taken hard work and tenacity to get this far - and it shows. In every performance you see his determination, and none more so than his coming-of-age moment at Manchester City last weekend.

It was sheer persistence that saw him latch onto a short backpass and win the penalty for Man Utd’s equaliser. It was sheer talent that saw him flick the ball elegantly over Ederson – described by Jamie Carragher as "one of the best pieces of skill you’ll probably see" – to score a famous winner.

Amad's derby winner

His goal was the culmination of a brilliant start to life under Ruben Amorim.

Amad has played virtually every minute for the new head coach, and his carries, runs, passes and finishes have been directly responsible for seven of the nine Premier League goals United have scored since Amorim took charge.

"He showed again today he is always alive," his captain Bruno Fernandes said after the win against City. "That is why he gets the penalty, and why he gets the goal. He has been brilliant. When he is like this he is unstoppable."

After a very long wait, Amad the Unstoppable has arrived.

Long journey from Abidjan to Old Trafford

Born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in July 2002 – the same month Rio Ferdinand joined Man Utd from Leeds United – Amad was signed at the age of 12 by Argentinian club Boca Barco.

It was the first step of a winding and complicated route to the top.

A year later, Amad was brought over to Europe, where he signed for Atalanta. By 16, he was training with the Italian club's senior squad – and making a big impression.

"There are defenders in the first team that sometimes cannot stop him," said Atalanta’s captain at the time, Papu Gomez. "To stop him in training, we have to kick him! He plays like Messi."

Unsurprisingly it wasn’t long before Amad was given his Serie A debut, as a substitute against Udinese in October 2019. Within six minutes of coming on, he had scored.

Picking up the ball 40 yards out, he drove forward and finished from outside the box to become the youngest player ever to score in their first Serie A appearance; he was just 17 years and 109 days old.

That goal must have had an influence on Man Utd, because with just 76 minutes of senior football under his belt, Amad was bought for big money.

"He’s one of the most exciting young prospects in the game," then United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said upon his arrival at Old Trafford. "He’s a player with all of the raw attributes that are needed to be an important player for Manchester United."

The first months brought a smattering of first-team appearances off the bench and a first goal - a glancing header against AC Milan in the Europa League's last 16 – as excitement built around the teenager.

Amad's first goal for Man Utd - against AC Milan

But it was at this point Amad’s meteoric ascent began to slow.

Loan spells and injury

After a year at United, Amad was sent on a six-month loan to Rangers, which began with another debut goal and was relatively successful.

Amad then spent the 2022/23 campaign on loan at Sunderland, where he scored 17 goals to help the Black Cats reach the League One play-off final.

Nicknamed "the magician" by manager Tony Mowbray, Amad grew stronger and more tactically aware, looking ready for the next step, before a knee injury in pre-season curtailed his progress.

It’s been a tough road since then. After five months out, Amad struggled for minutes under Ten Hag and was in danger of becoming the forgotten man… until that moment in the FA Cup quarter-final.

Flung onto the pitch in desperation more than anything else, Amad scored a brilliant 121st-minute winner to seal a 4-3 victory over Liverpool, an unforgettable moment en route to United’s 2024 FA Cup triumph.

In retrospect, the quality of the goal was a glint of what was to come, but at the time it felt like a flash in the pan for a player unable to fulfil his early promise.

Indeed, only six weeks ago it looked as though that would be the high point of his Man Utd career.

Ten Hag continued to limit Amad’s minutes. Another loan to Sunderland was rumoured in the summer, and the young winger’s career was going nowhere fast.

Then Amorim arrived and everything changed.

Elite pressing and ball-carrying technique

Really, it shouldn’t have surprised us to see Amad shine under Amorim. The qualities that mark him out as a player – hard work, intelligent pressing and fearless ball-carrying – are precisely the qualities Amorim values most.

Like 17-year-old Geovany Quenda, a tenacious winger converted into a wing-back by Amorim at his last club Sporting, Amad has adapted to the defensive side of his new role very impressively.

He has won possession 12 times in the attacking third, more than any other Man Utd player in 2024/25, and is the only Premier League player with two recoveries leading to goals this season, both against Everton.

Amad also averages 7.1 counter-pressures in the final and middle thirds per 90, which is behind only Rasmus Hojlund, Joshua Zirkzee and Fernandes, according to The Analyst.

For a player deployed in a defensive position, that’s exceptional.

Map of Amad's defensive actions

But it’s on the ball that Amad really shines.

Five of Man Utd’s nine goals under Amorim have been via ball carries from the right wing-back, who skips through the lines with bravery and a purpose that’s almost single-handedly moving the team out of second gear.

Only Mohamed Salah, with 20, has attempted more take-ons in the opposition’s penalty area than Amad, with 14. Only two Premier League players have a higher percentage of their total take-ons coming inside the box or entering the box (40.8 per cent), and only five players can better his five goal-ending or assist-ending carries.

Amad also ranks fifth in the Premier League for progressive carries per 90 with 6.22, among players who have played a minimum of 500 minutes this season.

In short, he is a ball-carrying wizard.

From just nine starts, he tops the Man Utd charts for take-ons attempted, with 47, successful take-ons, with 23, and progressive carries, with 61. Indeed, in a host of other metrics he is conspicuously leading Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho, among others.

Amad stats v Garnacho and Rashford (Man Utd ranking)

But that is far from Amad’s only trick. He ranks second in the United squad for chances created, with 21, behind only Fernandes, and is averaging a goal or assist every 111 minutes, again second only to the captain.

Only Hojlund, with six, has managed more goal involvements than Amad's five in all competitions.

Clinical in front of goal, sharp with the final ball, and an elite dribbler: Amad is already a highly skilled player, yet it is his attitude – a buzzword at Old Trafford over the last week – that marks him out as a player capable of going right to the top of the game.

Of all the positive comments spoken about Amad over the last few weeks, the one that stands out most is Amorim’s assessment after his first game in charge at Ipswich Town: "In three days, he improved so much defensively."

That’s how long it took Amad to learn a new position and to impress his new manager. Three days.

Back in 2021, he said it wasn’t his style to rush things.

That’s easy to say in the midst of a frictionless ascent, but after a long injury setback, limited playing time under Ten Hag and almost four years between his arrival and first-team prominence, it’s little wonder Amad is working so hard – and so quickly – to make up for lost time.