From Three Lions golden boy…to no seat on the airplane: How Marcus Rashford went from England star striker lauded for his combat in opposition to youngster poverty, to lacking out on Euro 24 after lack of kind, a Belfast ‘tequila bender’ and struggling abuse from followers

Marcus Rashford’s exclusion from England‘s provisional Euro 2024 group is the newest blow for the striker after a rocky season on and off the pitch. 

The 26-year-old Manchester United star shone on the World Cup in 2022 however has not too long ago suffered a dip in kind that is led to him not even making Gareth Southgate‘s facet for the pre-tournament coaching camp.

This has seen him endure abuse from the stands – with footage exhibiting him confronting a heckler at Outdated Trafford final week. 

And the aim drought has been accompanied by some off-pitch antics, together with a ‘tequila bender’ in Belfast hours earlier than he was due for a Friday coaching session.

The footballer, who has been lauded in recent times for his charity work and acquired an MBE for his efforts to sort out meals poverty, placed on a courageous face on right this moment’s snub, writing on Instagram: ‘Wishing Gareth and the boys all one of the best for the up and coming match.’

Rashford solely managed seven objectives and two assists throughout the 2023-24 Premier League season, and Southgate insisted his omission was solely all the way down to his performances on the pitch.

‘With Marcus I simply really feel that gamers in that space of the pitch have had higher seasons, it is so simple as that,’ he stated. 

The attacker’s struggles have pissed off some United followers, and this has generally spilled over into abuse. 

Final Wednesday, he was seen strolling away from his teammates to argue with a member of the gang, earlier than they ushered him again from the touchline. 

One fan could possibly be overheard telling these sat close to to a bunch of photographers to ‘simply go away him [Rashford] alone‘.

Earlier this season, the England star had confronted the wrath of his supervisor Erik ten Hag after he was noticed on an evening out in Belfast, earlier than subsequently failing to show as much as coaching, costing him a spot in United’s squad for his or her FA Cup conflict in opposition to Newport County.

Rashford issued a press release reflecting on the incident and his season within the Participant’s Tribune, saying he was ‘not an ideal particular person’ however folks wanted to cease questioning his dedication to Man United.

Away from soccer, the star has continued his marketing campaign in opposition to youngster starvation – which he first started on a mass scale in 2020 together with his partnership with meals waste charity FareShare. 

This noticed him increase greater than £20million for teenagers in want, earlier than he efficiently lobbied the UK Authorities to increase free faculty meals into the summer season holidays. 

In 2020, Rashford was handed the Metropolis of Manchester Award, in addition to the Particular Recognition award on the Satisfaction of Britain. 

He was additionally named Campaigner of the Yr by GQ Journal, and acquired a particular award at BBC’s Sports activities Persona of the Yr ceremony. 

FIFA inaugurated their FIFA Basis Award with Rashford that 12 months, which additionally noticed the governing physique donate £75,000 to his chosen charity, and in 2021, the ahead received the Soccer Writers’ Affiliation Tribute Award – given to those that have made an impressive nationwide contribution to the sport, and made an MBE.

However one in all his most prized rewards is more likely to be the honorary doctorate he acquired from the College of Manchester in 2021 for tackling youngster poverty. 

The Mancunian’s different charitable initiatives embrace The Marcus Rashford Guide Membership, which has delivered over 100,000 free books throughout the nation, and a partnership with Nike that goals to ‘instil self-belief for the subsequent era of younger folks’ via soccer.

But alongside loads of plaudits, Rashford has generally attracted detrimental headlines. 

In addition to the brouhaha in Belfast, Rashford had already been caught out as soon as earlier than this season together with his determination to go forward with a pre-planned twenty sixth party in October shortly after a dismal 3-0 defeat within the Manchester derby. 

A visit to Manchester nightclub Chinawhite could have appeared innocuous when booked prematurely, however hours after the Outdated Trafford defeat it was deemed ‘unacceptable’ by Ten Hag. 

The supervisor was content material together with his apology and introduced that the ‘inside matter’ had been resolved that week. Rashford was duly benched in United’s Carabao Cup tie with Newcastle – and later introduced on.

Again in September, after United’s 1-0 win away at Burnley, Rashford walked away unscathed after crashing his £700,000 Rolls Royce outdoors Man United’s Carrington coaching floor.

The participant collided with the automobile pushed by a 74-year-old grandmother on a wet September evening, and instantly checked she was okay and shortly exchanged insurance coverage particulars along with her. 

Each drivers have been merely shaken after the prang, which noticed Rashford take out each the opposite driver and a lamp-post. 

The footballer was beforehand criticised in January 2022 when he after which teammate Jesse Lingard have been pictured in Dubai partying alongside controversial rapper Wiley.

The grime artist was beforehand been banned from X in July 2020 for a sequence of broadly condemned anti-Semitic posts which referred to as Jewish folks ‘cowards and snakes’. 

Wiley had additionally made a variety of feedback deemed to be anti-Semitic in a later interview with The Voice which claimed that his Jewish associates within the leisure business ‘nonetheless see us as slaves’, and he was later dropped by his administration. 

Each Rashford and Lingard have been fast to distance themselves from the rapper, with the previous sharing an in depth apology to his social media accounts. 

‘This image has been delivered to my consideration which I perceive now, given context, may simply be misconstrued,’ Rashford wrote. 

‘I wish to reinforce that I don’t and won’t condone discriminative language or behaviour of any variety aimed on the Jewish neighborhood or every other neighborhood.

‘I really consider that tackling antisemitism in and out of doors of the sport requires a higher stage of consideration and may very a lot kind a part of the sport’s anti-racism stance.’