MAN UTD needed a goalkeeper, and Andre Onana will be the new one at Old Trafford.
United paid £47 million for the Cameroon goalkeeper. He will play goal instead of David De Gea.
United bought Andre Onana for £47 million.
Onana is nice and gives a lot. He set up a fund and sends money to Cameroon to power the town where his mom lives.
Onana also helps kids from poor families through the group she runs.
The Cameroonian player was a big part of his team’s run to the 2019 Champions League semi-finals.
He does really well in these kinds of tournaments; last year he helped Inter Milan make it to the top round.
The player, who is 27 years old, signed a deal worth about £6.2 million a year for five years.
The goalie also made sure to send some of the money he earned back to his home country.
Sometime in 2020, it was said that Onana used some of his pay to buy a power grid for a small African town.
The football player with a good heart also runs a charity to help kids whose lives have been hard.
His first team was Barcelona when he was young, but they were upset when he turned down a contract offer to join Ajax when he was 18.
But they made the right choice because Onana is now one of the best goalkeepers in Europe.
GOAL FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Onana, who was born in Cameroon, didn’t mean to support Mengueme, the place where his mom grew up.
In 2019, he got a £20,000-a-week deal with Ajax because he played well for them. He felt he had to repay the favor.
People in Essoessam now have electricity thanks to a power line that Onana paid for with his own money.
The people of Menguene no longer had to use kerosene lights, so it wasn’t dark.
He’s also done other nice things for other people.
Onana set up his foundation in 2016 to help young African children get a better schooling and medical care. People who have been hurt by terrorist acts can also get help from the charity.
He said, “I have seen for myself what many children in my country are going through.”
“I know deep down that I need to make their future better.”
WHAT IT MEANS THAT SAMUEL ETO’O
Samuel Eto’o, who used to play for Barcelona, helps Onana do well.
He went to the famous striker’s school in Cameroon to learn how to play football. When he was 14, he started going to the La Masia school.
“I’m very thankful for what he did for me,” Onana said from his base.
But in Catalonia, things didn’t go as planned for Onana.
When clubs sign foreign kids, they have to follow certain rules. In 2014, Barcelona broke those rules, so FIFA banned them.
That meant the young Barcelona players couldn’t get better because they couldn’t play any games for 18 months.
When he got back, he played in a UEFA Youth League game for under-19s for Barcelona against Ajax. He was named “man of the match,” which caught the attention of the Ajax coaches.
When he was 18, Onana got tired of his chances at the Camp Nou.
That summer, he was sure that Claudio Bravo and Marc Andre ter Stegen would keep him from making the first team. He thought that he belonged on Barcelona’s B team.
There was something that had to be done.
Barcelona was interested in getting him, but Ajax made a stronger case for him. The well-known Spanish player Andoni Zubizaretta was very angry that he moved to Amsterdam to step up his game.
Then, in 2016, when first-team goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen moved to Barcelona, boss Peter Bosz picked 20-year-old Onana as his first choice.
Chances Were Not Good
Onana finally made his dream move to the Premier League, but he could have moved up to a bigger club already.
The following year, he had a great season with Ajax and helped them make it to the Europa League final. He then began talking with a top, unknown team.
However, the guardian said that he was told that people would not like the move because of his skin color.
Marca also used the things Onana said to the Dutch newspaper Het Parool. Onana said, “It’s hard for a black maid to get to the top.”
“They didn’t hire me because their fans wouldn’t like a black gym worker.”
“They didn’t do it because they didn’t like me.” I see it as a compliment.”
Chelsea could win for sure if that team loses.
Coming back at the Inter
Furosemide is a drug that players aren’t supposed to take, so In 2021, Onana couldn’t play for a year. This was the end of his job.
He said he took his wife’s medicine by mistake. The decision was overturned with the help of Ajax, and his ban was cut down to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
It took Onana seven and a half years to start over in his career, so he went to Inter Milan.
He won the Supercoppa Italiana in January 2023 by beating AC Milan, a team they hate. After that, he beat Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia final.
The African was also very important in helping his team get to the Champions League final, where Man City narrowly beat them.