Youri Tielemans has given his first extended interview since joining Manchester United, revealing that Old Trafford had tried and failed to sign him twice before finally landing the Belgium midfielder this summer. United looked at him in 2019, when he was impressing on loan at Leicester, and again in 2022 while weighing up a move for Frenkie de Jong instead. It was this July, while Tielemans was with Belgium at the World Cup, that United triggered a £35m release clause in his Aston Villa contract for a five-year deal.
"There has been two times that I spoke with the club, but it did not achieve anything so I was just very calm about it," Tielemans said. He was warm about the club he left: "Aston Villa is a great club and I owe them the world. They have put me back at my best level so I am very thankful."
Familiar faces are easing the settling-in. Jonny Evans, his former Leicester team-mate, is now on Michael Carrick's coaching staff. "Jonny has always been a main character," Tielemans said. "He has always been trying to educate young players and he welcomed me at Leicester and now here." Marcus Rashford, a team-mate during a loan spell at Villa, has returned to his boyhood club too. "He was very humble, he was hard working and from the first training session, you could tell, his touch, his acceleration was amazing," Tielemans said. A partnership with captain Bruno Fernandes is also developing. "It's really natural," Tielemans said. "He is a guy that can find space easily. I just try and find him so that he can move forward."
Tielemans captained Belgium to the World Cup quarter-finals this summer, scoring twice in the last-32 win over Senegal, before a warm-up injury ruled him out of the defeat to eventual champions Spain. In between came the controversy of Folarin Balogun's suspended red card, reinstated for the United States striker ahead of Belgium's last-16 tie, which Belgium went on to win 4-1. "We were surprised by the decision to revert the red card and his suspension," Tielemans said. "… other than that, we were very calm and we just accepted our fate and tried to have a good game."