Jesse Lingard still watches Manchester United, usually on the television from his apartment in Seoul.
‘Most often it’s the highlights,’ he tells Mail Sport with a smile. ‘There’s a nine-hour time difference so I am usually in bed. But they are still my club.’
It’s almost three years since Lingard left Old Trafford and it was painful. As United’s slide from prominence had gathered pace, he became a lightning rod for criticism.
But there is no pain anymore, only pride in a boyhood dream realised and some empathy for those now walking their own difficult path at a place he still calls home.
‘The expectation of being at a big club like Man United, nobody really knows it,’ he explains. ‘That pressure of putting on the shirt. It’s about whether you can deal with that or not.
‘Look at Bruno (Fernandes). He can. I love Bruno to death. We spoke a lot when I was there and he always wanted to do well so badly.
Jesse Lingard still watches Man United, usually on the television from his apartment in Seoul
He has found a place in the South Korean capital at the age of 32 that feels like a refuge
Lingard is now the captain of FC Seoul and is the K-League’s most famous player
‘I’d say he is the main figure now and that’s what you need. A few more leaders.’
Lingard is now able to speak with a little more detachment. He has moved away and, more importantly, moved on. Sitting on his sofa wearing a pink beanie and a pair of white earphones, he talks for an hour about what life is now and what it once was.
Firstly, he is mentally and physically well. He was not always so. An achilles injury ruined a season at Nottingham Forest and a knee problem his first weeks at FC Seoul.
Meanwhile the toll of his mother’s mental health difficulties diminished him emotionally in his latter days at United.
‘I hid a lot back then,’ he says. ‘I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t a sharer. I am different now.’
In terms of his football he has found a place – in the South Korean capital at the age of 32 – that feels like a refuge.
He is captain of FC Seoul and the K-League’s most famous player. His family – including his six-year-old daughter Hope – are in England and that’s difficult.
‘I have occasionally cried at the airport,’ he admits. But his love for football and his personal equalibrium have returned.
Lingard is able to speak with a more detachment after moving away and having moved on
Lingard featured on FourFourTwo in South Korea and admits it can get a bit crazy when he goes out
He is mentally and physically well now, after an achilles injury ruined a season at Nottingham Forest and a knee problem impacted his first weeks at FC Seoul
Lingard has taken to Seoul life and loves the South Korea capital for its places to go and food
His mother’s mental health difficulties diminished him emotionally in his latter days at United
‘Life is wonderful again,’ he says. ‘Sometimes you just need to get away. I had reached that point.
‘But I love Seoul. It’s been really interesting. Loads of places to go, great food. Training hard and always learning. It can get a bit crazy when I go out. Sometimes I wear a mask – like a Covid mask – but it doesn’t tend to work!
‘So I do the pictures and try to sign everything because one day I will be retired and nobody will ask me anymore. They love me as a person and they seem to like me as a footballer. It’s amazing to see.
‘The standard of football is high, very technical. I really enjoy it. I watch the English highlights and there is so much time and space on the ball! Here it’s tight and they really like to run. I get man-marked.
‘I am playing as a No 10 and I try to follow the ref. Someone said to me years ago to stick near the referee, as he picks up the best positions. Have a look next time you watch the Premier League…’
Lingard had offers from Europe, South America and the USA before heading to Asia but mostly only on short-term contracts. Many, it seems, had bought the publicity around Lingard – that he was flash and no longer really committed to his career.
That still follows him now. He first spoke of his emotional difficulties in a Mail Sport interview while still a United player in December 2019. At that time, he was effectively parenting his younger brother and sister while his mother Kirsty received residential treatment for depression.
But not everybody was listening. Earlier this year, Lingard had a rare nibble on social media at someone who accused him and his friend Paul Pogba of destroying the culture at Old Trafford.
Lingard’s young family are back home in England he admits that has been a struggle
Lingard had offers from Europe, South America and the USA before heading to Asia but mostly only on short-term contracts
Earlier this year, Lingard had a rare nibble on social media at someone who accused him and his friend Paul Pogba of destroying the culture at Old Trafford
‘I love Paul to bits. He’s one of my best friends. We speak every day,’ Lingard tells Mail Sport
Lingard insists he only tried to make the culture better during his time at Manchester United
‘I don’t even really go on there anymore but I did see that and just asked the guy to explain it,’ he says. ‘We actually got some nice responses from other people. I love Paul to bits. He’s one of my best friends. We speak every day.
‘But I was thinking: “What was the culture, anyway?”
‘With us being in the first team, you know, it’s obviously knowing the right place, the right time to do things and stuff like that.
‘But ruining culture? We only tried to make it stronger. We responded to success and we smiled and laughed and we were winning games. So that is good culture, yeah?
‘Wayne Rooney told me: “Don’t buy your first car until you’ve played 50 games.” Obviously 50 games came and I drove in a Range Rover, parked up and Rooney is like: “Whose is that? Have you played 50 games now?”
‘And that was me accepted. I have never tried to be flash. Of course, if you have nice things sometimes you wanna show them. But the photographers would follow me and take pictures of me in my car every time we drove in.
‘But I’m not posting that or putting it on the Daily Mail am I?’
Lingard does not lack self-awareness. He knows he has made some mistakes. Equally he does not accept the narrative that his career has been a failure.
Lingard knows he has made some mistakes, but does not accept the narrative that his career has been a failure
Lingard’s FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League medals and an appearance in the 2018 World Cup semi-final all play to his point
His top-flight career flickered back to life in East London during a successful loan spell at West Ham during the first half of 2021
Shorter in England than perhaps he would have liked, but not a failure. FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League medals and an appearance in the 2018 World Cup semi-final all play to his point.
‘I 100 per cent do not feel failure, I feel achievement,’ he says. ‘You just gotta look at my story from seven years old, a kid from Warrington making it all the way through. The percentages of that are like 0.2 per cent or something. I got chosen.
‘You have to work hard. Go to digs and leave your family at 12 years old and move schools and be in a different environment. And I was the smallest. I was tiny. Sometimes I had to play down a year. So I’ve been through the mill, from a football point of view.
‘I made my debut then got injured and was out for six months out and then came back. Was I going to play again for United? I didn’t know.
‘A loan to Derby and others. At one point I had Newcastle on the table. I could have gone. I was debating it with myself.
‘It’s a fight. It’s like a rollercoaster, especially being so young. And at the time you’re just thinking: “I’ve got to play football”.
‘Fergie always believed in me. That was the only thing really for me. Sir Alex knows football. That meant everything, you know. For him to say when I was young that by 22 or 23 I’d be in the first team was really something and obviously that pretty much happened to the day.
‘At the time I just thought: “Is he magic? What kind of sorcery is this? You know what I mean?”
‘I am happy and satisfied. Scoring in cup finals, playing for my country, the World Cup, scoring at the World Cup. No one ever takes that away from me,’ Lingard tells Mail Sport
The Premier League holds his heart, and he believes he will remain fit enough to return
Extra gym work helped him and his stats show he covers more than seven miles in a single game
‘I am happy and satisfied because whatever happened was for a reason. Scoring in cup finals, playing for my country, the World Cup, scoring at the World Cup. No one ever takes that away from me.’
Lingard has always been softly spoken but not often coy. He is reserved, though, on the subject of West Ham. His top-flight career flickered back to life in East London during a successful loan spell during the first half of 2021 and he had the opportunity move there in the summer of 2022, only to move to Forest instead.
‘I’ll save that one for a rainy day,’ he says. ‘I don’t really want to go into detail but there was a great deal for me there on the table.
‘Then all the people get involved, and, you know, things start to go sideways, and your mind gets swayed. At that time I really wasn’t a guy who spoke out.
‘I loved being at Forest at the time. Amazing club. Amazing fanbase. Most of the season I was injured, my achilles tendon, which was disappointing.’
Lingard hopes to play for another four years or so and would consider the MLS or the UAE. The Premier League holds his heart, though, and he believes he will remain fit enough to return. Extra gym work has helped him and his stats currently show he covers more than seven miles in a single game.
In terms of the longer term, he has his mind on a complete career pivot.
‘I’ve always thought of acting,’ he reveals. ‘I tell any footballer not to just rely on the football. If there’s investment there to be made that is safe, and you’ve got good people around to do it, then do it. If you want to do real estate then do it. Don’t be afraid.
In terms of the longer term, he has his mind on a complete career pivot – acting
Lingard hopes to play for another four years or so and would consider the MLS or the UAE
Lingard’s residency in Seoul has been more permanent and if it hasn’t exactly saved him, it’s certainly helped to heal him
‘Social stuff has to be at the right time and I think that’s what was sticky for me sometimes. Looking back, I can see that.
‘I don’t know if I would need acting lessons but maybe help with remembering lines and stuff like that. I think I need to start now to be honest. I’m trying to do something over here to get onto like a show already, or something. A cameo appearance.’
Lingard’s residency in Seoul has been more permanent and if it hasn’t exactly saved him, it’s certainly helped to heal him. One suspects there will more challenges for him on occasion. He still carries an air of slight vulnerability.
But his mum is doing well and he has no regrets about laying his life bare in this pages five years ago.
‘The turnaround from a few years ago to now has been amazing for her,’ he smiles. ‘It was just hard at the time. Playing football and having so much in your head.
‘To other people I’m always the bubbly guy but deep down at the time, I was not that guy. I am still not always that guy. It’s hard to mask that for a long time but people maybe understand me more now and a few footballers reached out (for help).
‘You know the s*** that people get on social media. Some people can hack it and some people can’t and back then I was reading everything.
‘Now I can’t give a flying…’
His mum is doing well and he has no regrets about laying his life bare five years ago
‘When you’re living in Manchester you’re going for lunch or dinner and breakfast and getting people following. It’s a lot sometimes. At the end of the day, everyone’s human,’ Lingard says
Lingard says he feels happy in Seoul’s culture and people and very lucky
With that in mind, this is a conversation that ends where it started, the problems at his old club. I suggest to him that some former United players in the media are inclined to talk as though they never had a bad game.
‘Everyone is watching United,’ he says. ‘When you’re living in Manchester you’re going for lunch or dinner and breakfast and getting people following. It’s a lot sometimes. At the end of the day, everyone’s human.
‘A lot of them (the pundits) do talk a lot of stuff but to be honest nobody knows what goes on behind the scenes. They’re gonna just comment and make a statement. That’s what they do.
‘For me, happiness is key and right now that’s here. I love the culture, love the people. I feel very lucky.’
