Former Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman says the Spanish champions would be “crazy” not to sign Marcus Rashford on a permanent basis.
Rashford capped a hugely successful season-long loan spell with a brilliant free-kick as Barca clinched the Liga title last night with a 2-0 win over Real Madrid.
The Catalan giants have the option to sign the England international for a fee of around €30million from Manchester United this summer but reports suggest they are undecided on whether to keep a player that has scored 14 goals and added 11 assists in 47 games this season.
Aged 28, Rashford still has plenty of years left and Koeman, who famously scored the goal that handed Barcelona their first European Cup trophy in 1992 before managing the club between 2020 and 2021, feels it is a no-brainer.
“If Barcelona let him return to Manchester United after this loan, I think they will regret it enormously,” he said. “Because €30m in the current market for a player with these characteristics, these numbers, this experience… that’s a steal.
“Rashford destroys the opposition. Madrid seemed terrified every time he turned and ran. Against Real Madrid, it completely destroyed them in the transitions. Speed, aggression, confidence, Madrid could not cope with him.
“Every time Barcelona advanced, he was the danger. He scored a free-kick in El Clásico, stretches the entire defensive line, creates numerical opportunities, presses, gets behind…and still there are people within the club who hesitate to pay 30 million? That seems crazy to me.”
Rashford eager to stay at Barcelona
Rashford himself is desperate to remain at Camp Nou. After the game, he told the BBC: “I don’t know. I’m not a magician, but if I were, I would stay. I would stay, so we’ll see. I came here to win. I want to win as many things as possible, and this is another title.
“This team is a great team, and they will also win a lot in the future. So being part of that would be something special, so we’ll see.”
On his free-kick, which arrowed past Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Rashford added: “No, I wasn’t going to shoot. I wasn’t going to shoot and then… because when I put the ball down I didn’t see the angles. I didn’t feel confident it was going to be a goal, so I was going to cross. But then everyone is telling me to shoot and then I hyped myself up a little bit. It was good I shot in the end as it was a good goal.”
