I lived my dream by signing for Manchester United – but soon realised I wasn’t good enough

For many Manchester United fans, the 2007/08 season will be hard to top.

Just 10 days after winning the Premier League title on the road in nearby Wigan, United clinched their third Champions League crown in torrential rain in Moscow. Cristiano Ronaldo had finished the season with 42 goals and all was rosy in the Reds’ garden.

Everything was so rosy, in fact, that United took a fairly quiet approach to the subsequent transfer window, signing just three players in preparation for the 2008/09 season. Having recruited the Da Silva twins – Rafael and Fabio – from Fluminense, Dimitar Berbatov completed a fairly quiet summer of shopping for Sir Alex Ferguson.

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United’s squad was already packed with talent, Ronaldo was still on the books and the biggest name to leave the club that summer was undoubtedly Mikaël Silvestre, who made the move to Arsenal. But United being United meant they kept their options open, particularly when it came to young talent.

That’s why, in the run-up to the January 2009 transfer window, United swooped on Partizan Belgrade winger Zoran Tosic. He was making a name for himself in Serbia and United parted with £7m to bring him to Old Trafford.

Considered one of the most exciting products coming off the production line, United had secured one of the hottest properties in Europe. The 21-year-old had already made 56 appearances for Partizan, scoring eight goals in his debut season for the club.

Like many young people of that time, Tosic was a self-proclaimed United fan. The club, at the time he moved to Old Trafford, were the reigning Premier League champions, European champions and, just 11 days earlier, had become Club World Cup champions for the first time. United were the cream of the crop.

It was in 1999 that Tosic first fell in love with United. That, of course, was the year they beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final to become the first English club to win the treble.

“From the moment I saw United win the Champions League in 1999, I became a fan,” Tosic said, speaking in June 2009. “When I was a kid, I saw a picture of the national team in the dressing room and I said to the coach: ‘I’ll be there one day and I’ll be a Manchester United player, those are my two wishes’.”

After completing his move to United on 2 January 2009, the Serbian, now 37 and playing for Greek club Lamia, made his debut in a 2-1 FA Cup fourth-round win over Tottenham Hotspur, coming off the bench in the second half to replace Ronaldo. He made just two more appearances before the end of the season, clocking up just 16 more minutes in the process.

Tosic, however, was finding the process of settling in difficult. He joined United when they were at the height of their powers and the level of quality was off the scale.

“I was put straight into the first team and the levels were so high it felt like another sport,” Tosic recalled, speaking to The Athletic in 2019. “It was really tough for me those first few weeks in Manchester.

“The ball moved so fast in training, the quality was great, great, level. Nobody lost the ball. Except me. I was trying my best, but it wasn’t enough. This wasn’t the football I knew.”

Having struggled to settle in, Tosic became a regular for United’s reserves. However, he was part of the first team’s pre-season preparations for the 2009/10 season and scored United’s third goal in an 8–2 win over Hangzhou Greentown, who are now known as Zhejiang Professional FC

However, the Serbian continued to struggle when competitive action resumed, making just two substitute appearances in the League Cup in the first half of the campaign, featuring against Barnsley and Tottenham. Struggling to make his mark, United took the decision to send him out on loan in January 2010, allowing him to join FC Koln, for whom he scored five goals and registered two assists in just 14 appearances, highlighting that there was an exciting player in there somewhere.

Tosic’s struggles to make an impact at Old Trafford would no doubt have filled Ferguson with a touch of disappointment. The legendary Scot was confident that the winger had the credentials to make a success of Old Trafford.

“We’ve been watching Tosic for over a year,” he said, speaking at Tosic’s presentation. “He’s a winger and we like wingers here at Manchester United, so we’re very hopeful he’ll do well for us. Once he gets up to speed, I’m sure he’ll play a role for us this season.”

Struggling to make his mark, Tosic, following his loan spell in Germany in the second half of the 2009/10 campaign, left United permanently in June 2010, joining CSKA Moscow. Despite spending seven highly successful years in the Russian capital, he still questioned his decision to leave United less than two years after joining them.

“In the end, I wasn’t sure if I would get the chance I felt I deserved, so I decided to move clubs,” he admitted in 2019. “Even now, I always think about that moment. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick and should have worked harder to show Sir Alex.

“Maybe I should have stayed and fought for my place. This was Man United after all.”