Manchester United have promoted highly-talented teenager Anthony Elanga to their Europa League squad prior to their tie against Granada.
United take on Spanish outfit Granada away on Thursday evening in the first-leg of the Europa League quarter-final, and ahead of the crunch fixture one of the club's most promising youngsters has been rewarded.
The Red Devils are due to fly to Spain on Wednesday and Sweden youth international Elanga is now the latest youngster in contention for a place in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side as he continues to show faith in youth.
United are permitted, under UEFA rules, to add homegrown players to their 'B' list for the Europa League and Elanga has now been registered this week.
Elanga has recently recovered from a collarbone injury sustained after netting twice in the club's Under 23s Premier League 2 clash with Leicester City in January.
The 18-year-old, who trained with Solskjaer's first-team squad on Tuesday, is an old-fashioned winger who uses pace and trickery to beat his full-back and deliver crosses.
Elanga lived in Sweden until the age of 11 and was still a schoolboy when he made his debut for United's Under 18s.
The forward is now a regular for the Under 23s and there are high hopes for him to become a success at United.
Elanga was voted United's Jimmy Murphy youth team Player of the Year last season - an award the club pay great respect to.
Previous winners of the Jimmy Murphy award include Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil Neville, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood.
Just last month, Elanga put pen to paper on a new long-term contract with the Premier League giants.
Elanga got a taste of first-team football for United prior to the 2020-21 season, featuring in a pre-season friendly against Aston Villa.
And later on in the year, Elanga admitted that he was hungry to join the likes of Rashford and Greenwood in Solskjaer's first-team.
'You look at the likes of Mason and Rashy, there is a pathway there. It just shows you that if you're willing to put the work into it and continue to work hard day in, day out in training there's a pathway for you there.
'Obviously we've got a manager in Ole trusting the youngsters, so there's a pathway there and I've just got to keep working hard.
'In training I'm always working hard and the way that I train is the way that I play.
'You can see that in the results and I'm just happy at the moment, I'm enjoying my football.'
Elanga now has the chance to impress Solskjaer after earning a spot in United's Europa League squad.
sliekhay89
400
Don't ever forget that every young aspire players dreaming to play and making it big like messi, cr7, Zidane, Ronaldinho, kaka, Nesta, Maldini, giggs, ronney, lewandoski, neylmar etc.. Were given chance to play and being trusted to do it while promoting them from under 18 to 21 and to 23 thrn the first team. Since ole's been made permanent manager he's been doing good to promote those kids bcus they are making big progress in their respective categories but what's the essence of promoting and signing young players without giving them chance to express themselves only to give them 5 or 10 minutes even if we have an injury hit in thr first team ole gunnar will still not play them and inject them with painkillers to force the to play through injuries... A good manager who knows talent and has a tactical plan A or B would definitely know how mix young coning players with thr ready made ones... He has promoted Shotire but still that kid hasn't even played 10 minutes ever since even though rashford, martial cavani and greenwood have been injured. Even Amad there and still doesn't play nit forgetting we have pelestri, Garner, chong on loan and their respective managers trust them and giving them playing time
excuser
376
your name is Anthony Elanga please don't change it to Anthony Martial..🙏🙏🙏🙏