Marcus Rashford’s move to Barcelona has been fully backed by former Nou Camp star Gary Lineker, who believes the Man United exile will flourish in Spain.
The England international is on the verge of completing a dream loan move to the Spanish giants, with the switch expected to go through later on Wednesday.
Barca will pay all of his £315,000-per-week wages and will have the option to buy him for £40million at the end of the season.
He is one of five stars who is not in Ruben Amorim’s plans for the season despite impressing on loan at Aston Villa in the latter half of last campaign.
While Rashford won’t be walking into Hansi Flick’s side as an expected starter, Lineker, the last Englishman to play for Barcelona, believes he can find lift-off under the Catalonian sun.
‘He seems to be in the right frame of mind and this is such a great challenge for him,’ he told Sky Sports’ Football Museum podcast.
Marcus Rashford has been backed to be ‘terrific’ at Barcelona by Gary Lineker
Lineker says something is ‘rotten’ at Man United but was impressed by Rashford at Aston Villa
Rashford has been keeping himself fit independently while he is exiled by Ruben Amorim
‘Yes, they’ve got brilliant players and it will be tough to play regularly, but there are so many games that they play now.
‘They’ve got a front three of Raphinha, (Robert) lewandowski, and (Lamine) Yamal but you can’t play three players every game, in and out.
‘Lewandowski is past his best really now – it’s remarkable what he’s still achieving at his age.
‘I think it’s a good signing for Barcelona. Marcus at his best is unbelievable.
‘Let’s look at what has happened to the players that have left Manchester United recently. The players that you thought, “ah, they’re really struggling.” They’ve done unbelievably well. Unbelievably well everywhere.
‘Something at Manchester United right now is a little bit rotten and the players that have got away from that have generally succeeded, so I suspect Marcus, who we saw was terrific at Villa, can do the same thing at Barcelona.’
Mail Sport revealed in January that the 27-year-old had his heart set on a move to the Nou Camp before United struck a deal with Aston Villa to take him on loan.
However, Rashford’s brother and representative Dwaine Maynard flew to Spain to hold talks with Barca sporting director Deco in May, and the deal moved closer after Nico Williams decided to stay at Athletic Bilbao rather than join the Catalan giants.
One of the major appeals for Rashford is the chance to play alongside Lamine Yamal
‘Marcus at his best is unbelievable’,’ Lineker told Sky Sports Football Museum podcast
Barcelona boss Hansi Flick has made signing a left-sided attacker one of his priorities this summer.
Asked in an interview last month if he hoped to play alongside Barcelona’s teenage star Lamine Yamal, Rashford said: ‘Yeah, for sure. Everybody in the world wants to play with the best. Hopefully. We’ll see.’
Rashford has been training away from the rest of the United squad in pre-season at Carrington after a fall-out with head coach Ruben Amorim as one of five members of a United ‘bomb squad’ that also includes Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho, Antony and Tyrell Malacia.
After keeping fit with personal trainers in Marbella for much of the summer, Rashford has been coming to the training ground to work with United’s conditioning staff on the basis that he doesn’t access the complex until Amorim and the squad have left, sometimes arriving within minutes of the coach’s departure.
