Manchester United striker Federico Macheda says he will leave the club when his contract expires at the end of the season.
With the Old Trafford outfit not preparing to offer the 22-year-old Italian a new deal, the striker has acknowledged he will have to find a new club this summer.
“I don’t think I will stay at United,” Macheda, who is on loan at Championship side Birmingham, tells the Daily Telegraph. “My United contract runs out at the end of the season but I’m not worried about it now. When my loan finishes in May we will see what happens but I want to stay in England, ideally the Premier League.”
Most of the club fans will still remember ‘Kiko’, as he’s fondly called, for his role in the 2009 league title-winning team.
On April 5 of the aforementioned year, United trail Aston Villa 2-1 at Old Trafford, with their defence of the title apparently unravelling. It is at this moment that Sir Alex Ferguson elects to throw on an untried and unknown 17-year-old striker from Lazio.
In the third minute of injury time, Macheda executes a sublime drag-back and shoots to give United a 3-2 win with a brilliantly instinctive goal. United eventually take the league by four points.
The player immediately signed a deserved four-year contract with the Premier League champions- most of which has been spent on loan at Sampdoria, QPR, Stuttgart, Doncaster Rovers, and now Birmingham.
Macheda added: “Being at United is great but if you don’t play it’s better if you go somewhere else where you can play every game and have a career.
“Maybe I should have gone somewhere on loan for a whole season, instead of just for six months, and played somewhere else for the important years of my career.
“I’ve been at United since leaving Italy when I was 15 and it’s been crazy sometimes because I didn’t play much. But I played my part and I will always look back on that.
“I’m only 22 and people forget I’m still very young. When I broke into the first team I was a baby. It looks like I’ve been there for 10 years.”
Macheda cannot explain United’s slump under David Moyes. “It’s been very difficult, I don’t know the reasons why,” he said. “Are new players needed? Well yes, of course, but last season they won the title with the same team and now they’ve got Juan Mata.
“People say they need new signings but it’s still basically the same team that finished first last year. It’s a big gap to the top four but they could have a chance. This season the title has gone but there is always next season.You have to have something to be the United manager and hopefully his quality will come out to the players for next season. With the players they’ve got they will bounce back.”
