Never let it be said that footballers aren’t the most imaginative bunch of people.
Just look at David De Gea’s descriptive tweets and what appears to be Manchester United players calling 19-year-old striker, Marcus Rashford, by the easiest nickname of all time.
On Sunday, United kept up what’s left of their hopes of finishing in the Premier League top four with a 3-0 win at Sunderland.
With Jose Mourinho conceding that Europa League is now United’s priority as they bid to reach next season’s Champions League, it was perhaps understandable that first choice goalkeeper David De Gea was rested as he recovered from what Mourinho described as a ‘small problem’.
With Sergio Romero deputising, the Spanish number one entertained himself by tweeting goal updates for each of the United goals. He kept it simple, simply tweeting a nickname for the name of each of his teammates, followed by a football emoji.
This one, for Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s opener…
IBRA⚽️
— David de Gea (@D_DeGea) April 9, 2017
Followed by this, for Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s second, shortly after the break…
MIKI⚽️
— David de Gea (@D_DeGea) April 9, 2017
And finally, this one, for Marcus Rashford’s goal at the death…
KID⚽️
— David de Gea (@D_DeGea) April 9, 2017
‘Kid’ – a reference to Rashford’s tender years – appears to be his nickname amongst the United squad. Clever stuff, we’re sure you’ll agree.
Either way, the Spanish number one’s use of an informal English term seemed to amuse plenty of folk on Twitter…
https://twitter.com/PazEdition/status/851090522596933632
I love how de gea calls rashford 'kid' 😂
— Min (@eggpoms) April 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/GodBlessZico/status/851118305674973186
https://twitter.com/TypicalZlatan/status/851095976832053257
Catch up with this week’s episode of 888Sport Football Friday Live