“It Makes Me Smile,”: Onana on His Tough First Season at Manchester United Ahead of FA Cup Final

• Manchester United will face rivals City in the FA Cup final today
• The cup could give a different ending to the Red Devils’ season
• Andre Onana has reflected on his first season as a United player

Andre Onana has reflected on a difficult first season as Manchester United’s goalkeeper ahead of the FA Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium later today.

Onana joined United for £47 million from Inter Milan last summer after helping the Serie A club to the UEFA Champions League final, which they lost to treble winners City.

He came in with a reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, but that reputation has diminished after enduring a difficult season in an underwhelming United team.

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According to Transfermarkt, he has conceded 82 goals in 50 games in all competitions, including 58 in the league and 15 in the Champions League, keeping only 13 clean sheets.

Onana reflects on first season at Manchester United

The Cameroonian goalkeeper, speaking to ESPN from United’s training facilities at Carrington ahead of the FA Cup final, admitted his first season was a learning process.

“You know, it just makes me smile because you’ll see you are not too strong in life. There’s always time to learn, and in United, it was. My first six months was a learning time,” he said.

“When I arrived here, I arrived as the best goalkeeper in the world and ‘boom’ it went down. It was like, ‘what happened?’,

“But that is how difficult football is sometimes. It depends if you want to stay down there or stand up and fight. I know what I did to arrive here. I know who I am. I decided to stand up and fight.”

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He has one final task for the season, which is this afternoon's final. The Red Devils conceded 13 seconds into last season’s final against the same opponent and lost 2-1.

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Sports Brief reported on Andre Onana backing Marcus Rashford to be Manchester United’s hero in the FA Cup final against city rivals Manchester City today.

The English forward had an underwhelming season, but the goalkeeper believes he is one of the best in the world and could be the difference today at Wembley.