Jesse Lingard's winding road from Warrington to Seoul and São Paulo
Jesse Lingard scored in the FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield finals for Manchester United, one of just three players to manage all three. Later, after a slump, he reinvented himself on loan at West Ham, then became the first British player to score in the Copa do Brasil, for Corinthians.
Born in Warrington in December 1992, Lingard joined Manchester United's academy at seven and was part of the side that lifted the 2010–11 FA Youth Cup. The breakthrough took years. He was farmed out to Leicester, then Birmingham, where on his first senior start he scored four times against Sheffield Wednesday, then Brighton and Derby. His competitive United debut, in Louis van Gaal's first game in charge, ended after 24 minutes with an injury.
From 2015 he was a regular, and he had a habit of scoring on big days: the opener against champions Leicester in the 2016 Community Shield and United's second in the 3–2 League Cup final win over Southampton in 2017. He played at the 2018 World Cup, where England came fourth. Under Ole Gunnar Solskjær his place slipped away, and in July 2020 his stoppage-time goal at Leicester, which sealed Champions League qualification, was his first league strike since December 2018.
A loan to West Ham in early 2021 changed the mood. He scored twice on debut against Aston Villa, then carried the ball 52 metres before scoring against Wolves, the longest such run to a goal in that Premier League season. With nine goals and five assists in 16 games he outscored any single league season of his at United, and he was named player of the month for April.
The years after were less settled. He failed to score or assist in 17 league games for Nottingham Forest, then signed for FC Seoul in 2024 in a deal one journalist called the biggest in K League history, endured public criticism from his coach and knee surgery, and was made captain for 2025. In March 2026 he moved to Corinthians in Brazil, soon scoring in both the Copa do Brasil and the Copa Libertadores.
Source: Jesse Lingard
