Timothy Fosu-Mensah: Former Manchester United defender talks Michael Carrick, Bruno Fernandes and being a free agent

“Nothing is given, everything is earned.”

The words of former Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah, as we sat down to reflect on his career so far, while also looking forward.

Fosu-Mensah, now 28, is a player desperate to get back to playing the game he loves after a challenging few years out since leaving Leverkusen.

"After Bayer Leverkusen, I'm a free agent," Fosu-Mensah said in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News.

"I've had some complicated situations with certain people, and I know that's mainly the reason why things were quite complicated for me to move on to another club.

"I've been training hard, staying in shape, not just chill or relax but keeping going because I'm always ready for the next opportunity."

It is perhaps easy to forget Fosu-Mensah, who made his debut for United at 18-years-old, picked up an impressive collection of trophies.

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A Europa League, an FA Cup and a League Cup during his time at United, while also being part of the Leverkusen squad which historically went unbeaten in the Bundesliga under Xabi Alonso.

He has been without a club for two years but is training with Crystal Palace's U21S to maintain his fitness.

Fosu-Mensah has suffered two serious knee injuries in his career; his first came during a loan spell at Fulham in 2019, followed by another in 2022 soon after his move to Leverkusen.

The good news is he is fit and ready to play now, having suffered two significant injuries which threatened to derail everything.

"The first one was seven years ago at Fulham, it was a difficult one and I didn't know what to expect," Fosu-Menah said.

"I went back to United and did my rehab, played in a couple of games like the Europa League semi-final, FA Cup semi-final then we came to the decision to part ways.

"Then I went to Leverkusen, everything started well there and then it happened after eight games, and the second one was quite tough to deal with mentally.

"I already knew the process from the first one, and people think because you've already done it, you know the process but I think for me it was more difficult because I went to Leverkusen and started great there.

"Everything was going well and the Euros were coming up as well. I had a great chance of being in the Euro 2020 squad.

"The sporting director, Simon Rolfes, was very supportive towards me and told me himself that in his playing days he had an injury which took him out for a year."

Fosu-Mensah still has such love for Man Utd, and is pleased to see them finish the season strongly under Michael Carrick.

"I think you can see it since he has been the manager, the points like in the first two games [against] Manchester City and Arsenal," says Fosu-Mensah.

"You see the results and I'm glad he's doing well because I could see how already good he was when he was in the staff with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer so it is not surprising for me."

"I'm happy they are doing well, I see a couple of young boys also making some minutes and that's what United stands for.

"I'm glad it's going in the right direction and that they're going to play Champions League football next season - that's where United belongs."

Rashford and I went into college after our debuts like nothing happened

Having arrived in Manchester at the age of 16, Fosu-Mensah made his debut for United just two years later under former manager Louis van Gaal.

It was a memorable debut for the Netherlands international as he came off the bench to replace the injured Marcos Rojo, a moment he was not expecting to come his way.

"It was amazing, it was really amazing," Fosu-Mensah said.

"I remember being in the changing room at half-time and Louis van Gaal came up to me and said, 'Make sure you're ready'."

"I didn't know Marcos Rojo was struggling with an injury when he said be ready. I was like, 'what does he mean?'"

Fosu-Mensah had an impressive debut against Arsenal. At the same time, a teenage Marcus Rashford had already scored two goals in just his second competitive appearance for the first team, and it made Fosu-Mensah feel even more at home as United won 3-2 on the day.

He said, "I was with Marcus in the 18s and 21s and then he went to the first team and started in that game.

"He scored two goals in that game and I was looking and was like… 'yeah, this is my team-mate', it was just great, great day. I remember the next day, Marcus and I went to college like nothing happened."

'Maldini? Ronaldinho? I looked up to Pogba'

As Fosu-Mensah collected three trophies over a five-year period at the club, he played in some big games alongside some huge individual talents.

"Paul [Pogba] is definitely up there because before I came to United and I was at Ajax, I was a centre-back but also a defensive midfielder and Paul was already doing well in Juventus so I was big fan of him already," Fosu-Menah said.

"If you ask me who the player I looked up to, people would expect you to say maybe Maldini, Ronaldinho - these are great players but for me I've seen Paul and what he was doing at Juventus - I think at maybe 19 or 20, I was a fan of him because he was different.

"With a player like Paul, you see him up close… you can always pass the ball to him, it doesn't matter what position he is in, he always owns the ball and he is so skilful, left-foot or right-foot, technically he is great and maybe he doesn't get his flowers now but he will definitely get them later.

"I would say Paul, Wayne Rooney, I would say maybe Bruno Fernandes is maybe the same situation as Paul because he's still active, you don't really see what he's doing for the club but later you'll be like 'this was ridiculous what he is doing.'"

"He doesn't fear anything," Fosu-Mensah said when quizzed on Fernandes.

"I remember there was one game," Fosu Mensah explained, "I think we played against Everton away, me and Luke (Shaw) were on the bench and Luke was like, "Bruno, it's not normal!" and I agree because since he came in the standard was from that moment until now, so high."

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