On 5 April 2009, 17-year-old substitute Federico Macheda- who turned 24 on Saturday- scored a stunning late winner as against Aston Villa. Since then, things haven't quite gone to plan. Lets take a look at Italian's career so far.
Macheda began his football career with Lazio's youth team and due to the football regulations in Italy he wasn't permanently tied to the club as the U-18s were prevented from signing a professional contract, so he was signed by Manchester United when he became 16.
He was sent straight into U-18s side for the club and finished as their top scorer with a total of 12 goals in 21 appearances and even made a reserves appearance not too long after that, he signed a professional contract with Manchester United in 2008 and made a few appearances for the reserves to end his season.
On April 5, 2009, he made his debut with style as he came on for Nani just after the hour mark down 2-1, Ronaldo would score with just about ten minutes to play and then the Italian striker scored a stunning late winner to give Manchester United all three points.
The Italian striker was was brought against by Sir Alex Ferguson when the game against Sunderland was tied at 1-1 and after 46 seconds, with his first touch, Macheda made it 2-1, Macheda made some appearances for United after that but he was slowly faded out of the picture at Old Trafford before being loaned to Sampdoria.
Macheda scored his first and only Sampdoria goal on his first start for the club, as he opened the scoring against Udinese in the Coppa Italia, unfortunately Sampdoria lost their battle against relegation and Macheda returned back to Manchester to play just two games for the Red Devils scoring one from the spot against Crystal Palace in the League Cup.
Macheda was loaned out in January to Premier League club QPR for the rest of the season but he suffered an ankle injury on 28 March which ended his season so he returned to Manchester for treatment, he was then loaned to the German side Stuttgart and Doncaster Rovers but he failed to find his potential and didn't make an impact while he was there.
The Italian striker was then loaned to Birmingham City where he made his best performance in his career so far as he finished the season as Birmingham's top league goalscorer, with ten goals from just 18 games, but that couldn't save his Manchester United career as he was released by the Red Devils.
The 24-year-old striker was signed by his former manager at United reserves Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for free to Cardiff City at the end of the season, the Italian currently has scored eight goals in 25 appearances for Cardiff City.
Federico Macheda is still a young player and he can still be a successful forward for a top-flight club and maybe he is the new Diego Forlán or Giuseppe Rossi but we'll have to wait find out.
Happy birthday to Federico Macheda. He'll always be a cult hero to Manchester United fans...
Source: DSG
