What happened to Federico Macheda, 10 years after his medal for Manchester United?

In a parallel universe, Liverpool would not be looking to end nearly 30 years of suffering and misery in the Premier League race.

The drought ended a decade ago when a team led by Rafael Benitez chased his tough rival, Manchester United, to proudly restore the Merseyside Reds.

All this could very well have happened – without the intervention of a young Italian aged 17, making one of the most cinematic debut in the history of football.

Believe it or not, this Friday marks the 10th anniversary of Federico & Kiko & # 39; Macheda who spun in an Old Trafford penalty area and made his way to the Stratford End in a goal that allowed United to keep his nose in Liverpool until the end of the season. .

It was a delusional moment for the teenager, but Macheda was in fact only the lastborn of the lineage of United players scoring decisive wins in stoppage time. Bruce 1993. Cantona & # 39; 96. Solskjaer & # 39; 99. Macheda & # 39; 09.

From this launching pad, Macheda's United career briefly took off as a rocket, soon to run out of fuel and collapse in many loan episodes and injury setbacks.

The striker will finally leave Old Trafford in 2014 and is now playing for Panathinaikos in Greece, where he scores again regularly. But before all that, let's go back to the beginning.

In early April 2009, and while United were the defending champions of England, Europe and the world, they were annoyed.

Sir Alex Ferguson's players took advantage of seven points to top the standings after a catastrophic 4-1 home defeat against their opponents Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat at Fulham.

The Benitez team won 1-0 at Craven Cottage 24 hours earlier – thanks to a goal scored in the 92nd minute – United started their Sunday afternoon game with Aston Villa in second place .

The Ferguson team was severely impoverished. Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic were all suspended, while Dimitar Berbatov, Rio Ferdinand and several others were injured.

Gary Neville had to line up in the center of the back line. Carlos Tevez started alongside Ryan Giggs, but Argentina had just returned from international homework and was unlikely to last 90 minutes.

Six days earlier, Ferguson, aware of his slender line, had told Macheda before a reserve outing to Newcastle: "If you succeed tonight, there is a good chance you will be on the bench on Sunday."

Macheda duly scored a hat trick and Ferguson kept his word.

Liverpool had beaten the Villa 5-0 a week earlier, but United found the situation more difficult. Cristiano Ronaldo gave them a fast lead but goals from John Carew and Gabby Agbonlahor, both taking advantage of their imbalance with Neville, allowed Villa to lead with 10 points.

After 61 minutes, Ferguson had thrown Macheda into the fray for Nani and, although the young man was riding on a gigantic stage with unparalleled confidence in himself, the players inside a tense Old Trafford could see the title slipping through United's fingers.

Ronaldo equalized with 10 minutes to play, but that would still have been an advantage for Liverpool with seven games to play.

There was only a few seconds left when Giggs slipped a pbad into Macheda just inside the box. He turned with a Cruyff bend and leaned his shot, in the stretch and falling back, out of reach of Brad Friedel.

In Sky Sports' comment box, Martin Tyler's voice was squeaked as he pronounced the last two syllables of "MACHEDA !!!".

The young man was remarkably calm in the midst of delirium and found his father, Pasquale, in the stands and ran to kiss him. In the press, it is difficult to know who started Federico Macheda.

Born and raised in "a crazy neighborhood of Rome", Macheda had a difficult education. Pasquale worked at night as a security guard to take her talented son to the day's football training; his mother Loredana was a cleaning lady in a hotel.

"The money was tight for my family. We did not have a vacation. Never, "said Macheda during an interview with ESPN in 2017." Once every two or three years we spent a day at the sea.

"We had social housing and there was a lot of crazy people around. As a child, I made a lot of mistakes about which I told myself that I could not do that. But I did that; little things that have caused me trouble.

He failed miserably at school and had to repeat the same year four times in adolescence. Fortunately, his talent as a footballer offered him a way to escape better fortunes.

Fan of Lazio who revered Alen Boksic, Matias Almeyda and Juan Sebastian Veron, Macheda was playing for their academy when a United scout started watching him at the age of 16.

When United faced off against Roma in the 2007 Champions League quarterfinals, Ferguson invited Macheda and his family to return to the hotel's team. The interest was serious.

"He gave me a shirt with my name and number 9 on the back. They also gave me a copy of Cristiano Ronaldo, recalls Macheda. "And it was Ferguson who did that. At Lazio, I had never even talked to the manager of the first team.

Macheda soon went to Manchester, but the situation was far from smooth. A misunderstanding about the money left the player with only £ 600 a month. He did not speak English, hated food and the weather was depressing.

"I wanted to leave after a day," he admitted later.

Fortunately, the next day, Macheda showed up at workout and had lunch with Ronaldo and Giggs. Soon, he scored regularly for the youth team and then for the reservists, who were coached by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Looking back, we know that Macheda's United career culminated at that time. What we often forget, is that he also scored the winner of United at Sunderland the following weekend.

He played a partial role for the rest of the season, starting the FA Cup semifinal with Everton at Wembley. In December 2009, he signed a four-year contract.

In the manner of a switch, the life of Macheda was transformed. He remembered being overwhelmed by 100 people while shopping in Trafford Center, while a teenager's picture seemed clumsy while she was surrounded by glamorous women in a nightclub.

Ferguson did his best to keep the young man on the ground, but the manager knew that the bridge was very tight against Macheda.

United, after all, were champions of Europe and were going to reach another finals in 2009. They had Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez and Danny Welbeck. He was always destined for a partial role.

Midway through the 2010-11 season, with Macheda still 19 years old, he was suggested to take some time on loan. Unfortunately, it is here that the bravado of the teenager proved his loss.

"I did a few games, but I had to play every week," he said in an interview with ESPN. "Fergie wanted me to go on loan; I could see that it was reasonable.

"Many Premier League clubs have come to get me, including Everton and Sunderland. But I wanted to play in Italy, in Serie A.

"Fergie did not agree and said I should play in England, where he could keep an eye on me. He said that he did not have the same power in Italy.

"I insisted on Italy and it was the worst mistake of my life."

Ignoring Ferguson, Macheda found himself quickly drawn into a vicious circle of borrowings, often limited by premature wounds and punctuated by poor form spells.

He scored once for Sampdoria and not at all for Queens Park Rangers or Stuttgart.

Before Macheda knew it, it was in September 2013, Ferguson had been replaced by David Moyes and he had been powered to Doncaster Rovers in the championship.

"The town of Doncaster was different from the one I had lived in and was not the best," Macheda said to himself. & # 39; My girlfriend was my savior; she came everywhere with me.

He started well, scoring twice against Nottingham Forest in his debut, then again in Sheffield on Wednesday. He then pulled his hamstring and the vicious circle took another turn.

"I started having problems in pre-season," he said. Sportsmail two years ago. "I'll be away for six weeks, I'll come back, I'll fight again. He arrived at a stage where I could not move or even feel my legs, especially the one on the right.

& # 39; Finally, I was operated on. I had a disc that pushes my sciatic nerve and they cut it. In hindsight, I would have liked to have the operation much sooner. It took essentially two years of my career.

Macheda regained momentum with 10 goals in 10 starts on loan at Birmingham City in his last contract season at Old Trafford, then joined Cardiff City in 2014. The landing was smooth as Solskjaer was in charge.

He was still only 23 but still suffered injuries. Solskjaer was fired a few weeks after his arrival and his successor, Russell Slade, was less enthusiastic. In and out of the side, the drift continued.

It is in 2016 that Macheda decided to adopt the "Zero Year" approach. Barely 25 years old, he felt like he was on the runway. That euphoric moment at Old Trafford seemed like a distant dream.

"I was very worried. I have not found anyone who wants to take me and I am a good player, "he said.

The return home in Italy and the decline of one level to play for the Serie B club Novara proved the kickoff he needed. Small town located between Milan and Turin, in the shadow of the snow-capped Alps, it was the ideal setting under the radar to start from scratch.

"I do not think I have failed in England. I was 15 years old, almost 16 years old, when I arrived in Manchester with the dream of playing in the Premier League, and I did it, "he said. Sportsmail in 2017.

"Expectations for a 17-year-old player were still unrealistic – not inside the club but on the outside."

Far from the spotlight, with the added responsibility of taking care of baby Lorenzo, Macheda has started to score again.

When his contract expired last summer, he signed a three-year deal with Panathinaikos in Greece and has scored eight goals in 23 games so far.

A career that started ten years ago with such a stratospheric level was only likely to slip. But at least Federico Macheda will always be remembered. Not less in Merseyside.