Raphael Varane has admitted that he always believed he would end up at Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson attempted to acquire him in 2011.
Varane has talked extensively about his face-to-face meeting with Ferguson, but ultimately couldn’t pass up the opportunity to imitate fellow Frenchman Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, who paid a cool £8 million to recruit him from Lens that summer.
Varane finally arrived in Manchester in 2021 after a decade in Spain, and the defender revealed to the club’s official website that he always knew it would come eventually.
“Yes [it felt like destiny],” he said.
“Manchester United has always been a special club for me, with a big history.
“I always followed this club and, you know, I have great memories about, for example, Champions League or great games in the Premier League. Obviously, it’s a great club and, of course, I always followed Manchester United.”
Varane has made 19 appearances in English football so far and admits that the style of play has taken him by surprise.
“Yeah, the games are very difficult,” he confessed. “You can’t be relaxed, you can be winning a game and you know if you have ten minutes to play, anything can happen.
“I think it’s the best league in the world and the intensity is absolutely amazing. Every team has players with top quality. Tactically, it’s a very high level and there are a lot of players and coaches from everywhere. So it’s a mix about different cultures and different styles of players and of mentality. I think that is why the league is top because it’s the best from everywhere.”
On his relationship with Paul Pogba:
“I think there is different leadership [styles],” Varane explained.
“Paul is more impulsive and more energetic. I am more calm and more analytical and practical. There are different points of view. I think it’s important to have, in a team, these different leaderships.”
