Shola Maxwell Shoretire (born 2 February 2004) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or winger for

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

club PAOK. Shoretire was a part of Manchester United's

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

from a young age and won the

Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year Manchester United Football Club Under-21s is the most senior of Manchester United's youth teams and the club's former reserve team. They play in the Premier League 2, the highest tier of the Professional Development League. The team is effect ...

award in the 2020–21 season. He signed his first professional contract in February 2021, at the age of 17, and made his first-team debut later that month in a Premier League game against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional Association football, football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football league system, English football. The club was ...

. He holds the record as the youngest player to represent Manchester United in European competition. Shoretire has played youth international football for England at under-15, under-16, under-18, and under-19 levels. He is also eligible to represent Nigeria at international level.

Club career

Early career

As a child, Shoretire played with Whitley Bay Boys Club, Newcastle City Juniors,

Wallsend Boys Club Wallsend Boys Club is an English youth football club based in Wallsend, North Tyneside. The club is well known for producing professional footballers; more than 65 players from the club have gone on to play professionally, some of them even ...

Hebburn Town Hebburn Town Football Club is a football club based in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, England. The club are currently members of the and play at Hebburn Sports & Social Ground. History The club was founded in 1912 as a works team for the Reyrolle ...

and Cramlington Juniors. He was also briefly part of

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

's youth setup, but left to join rivals

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

at the age of nine.

Manchester United

Shoretire quickly rose through the youth ranks of the ''Red Devils'', frequently playing a year up his own age. In December 2018, he became the youngest ever player to appear in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Leagu ...

at the age of 14 years and 314 days. In 2020, after impressing with the under-18s,

Neil Wood Neil Anthony Wood (born 4 January 1983) is an English football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of club Salford City. As a player, Wood played as a midfielder. He began his playing career in the academy of Manchester Unit ...

, coach of the under-23s, handed him his under-23s debut when he was just 16. He scored a hat-trick in a 6–4 win for the under-23s against Blackburn Rovers in February 2021. Shoretire signed his first professional contract with Manchester United on 8 February 2021, a week after turning 17. On 21 February 2021, he made his first-team debut for United as an 88th-minute substitute for

Marcus Rashford Marcus Rashford (born 31 October 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Manchester United and the England national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is known for his explosive ath ...

in a 3–1 home league win over

. Four days later, he became United's youngest player to make an appearance in a European competition, coming on as a substitute for

Mason Greenwood Mason Will John Greenwood (born 1 October 2001) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Manchester United. A graduate of United's youth system, Greenwood scored in a UEFA Europa League match against Astana in Se ...

in a 0–0 home draw against

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septemb ...

in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

at the age of 17 years and 23 days, beating the record set by

Norman Whiteside Norman Whiteside (born 7 May 1965) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and striker. Whiteside began his career at Manchester United, signing professional forms in 1982 at the age of 17 and quickly bec ...

38 years earlier by 108 days. For his performances with the youth teams, Shoretire was named the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year for 2020–21.

Loan to Bolton

On 19 January 2023, Shoretire officially joined EFL League One club

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

on loan until the end of the season. He was

cup-tied In association football, a player who has appeared for a football club during a knockout cup but subsequently transfers to another club is ineligible to play for the new club in the remainder of that season's cup competition. Such a player is sa ...

as Bolton went on to win the

2022–23 EFL Trophy The 2022–23 EFL Trophy, known as the Papa Johns Trophy for sponsorship reasons, the 40th season in the history of the competition, is a knock-out tournament for clubs in EFL League One and League Two, the third and fourth tiers of the English ...

. On 8 May 2023, he scored his first league goal in senior football, scoring the first goal in a 3-2 win over

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

. On 5 June 2024, United confirmed they were in talks with Shoretire about a new contract.

PAOK

On 30 July 2024, Shoretire signed with the

club PAOK on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract at Manchester United.

International career

As Shoretire was born in England to a Nigerian father and English mother, he is eligible to represent both nations at international level. He made one appearance for the England under-15 team, in a friendly against Belgium in February 2019. He made two appearances for the England under-16 team in August 2019, against Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. On 29 March 2021, Shoretire made his debut and only appearance for the England under-18 team during a 2–0 away victory over

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

at the Leckwith Stadium in Cardiff. On 2 September 2021, Shoretire made his debut for England at under-19 level during a 2–0 victory over

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

at St. George's Park. He made four appearances for the under-19 team.

Career statistics

Honours

Manchester United *

runner-up:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Individual *

References

External links

Profile
at the Manchester United F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shoretire, Shola 2004 births Living people Black British sportsmen English people of Nigerian descent Sportspeople of Nigerian descent Footballers from Newcastle upon Tyne English men's footballers Men's association football forwards England men's youth international footballers Wallsend Boys Club players Manchester United F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players PAOK FC players Premier League players English Football League players English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece 21st-century English sportsmen