Jesse Lingard has revealed that Manchester United icon Sir Alex Ferguson once threw a boot at his head. But Lingard wasn’t upset – in fact, the England star knew in that moment that Fergie was a fan.
The Scottish boss, who won 13 league titles and the Champions League twice at Old Trafford, had told Lingard that he would make it – but he’d have to wait until he was 22 or 23-years-old to do it.
Indeed, Lingard became convinced ‘The Main Man’, as his grandad referred to Sir Alex, liked him after he got a flying boot to the head.
Not in anger, as when David Beckham inadvertently coped for it, but as a sign of affection.
The Manchester United forward told the Players’ Tribune: “I’ll never forget this one day, I was still at the academy, and I was walking the corridors at Carrington.
“I think maybe I was having a bad day, to be honest. I was in my head. So I’m just walking the halls, and all of a sudden I feel a boot clip the back of me head.
“Thwack. Proper thwack. I turn around, like, ‘bloody . . . who done that?’ “And it’s Sir Alex, and he’s got a little smirk. He says, ‘how you beehavin’, bwoy?’ “He knew what it meant to do something like that.
“That’s how you knew he liked you, when he’d have a bit of banter with you. “I was buzzing for days after that. ‘The Main Man’. “Gonna play for him some day.”