Axel Tuanzebe (born 14 November 1997) 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 le ...

who plays as a defender for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

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 ...

. Tuanzebe is a graduate of the Manchester United youth system and won both the

Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year Manchester United Football Club Under-21s is the most senior of Manchester United F.C., 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 Leag ...

and Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year awards. He made his competitive debut in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

game against

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

in January 2017. He has had three spells on loan at

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

and helped them to win promotion to the Premier League in 2019. Born in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, he relocated to England at a young age and has represented England at under-19,

under-20 Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in ...

and under-21 levels.

Club career

Manchester United

Early years

Tuanzebe was associated with the

Manchester United academy 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 effectiv ...

from the age of eight. He was captain of the

Milk Cup SuperCupNI, formerly called the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament and the Dale Farm Milk Cup, is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The cup matches are mainly played in the North Coast area of ...

winning youth side in 2014. In May 2015, Tuanzebe won the

award. Academy coach

Paul McGuinness Paul McGuinness (born 16 June 1951) is the founder of ''Principle Management Limited'', a popular music act management company based in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. He was the manager of the rock band U2 from 1978 to 2013. Early life ...

noted that Tuanzebe was likely the first first-year scholar to captain the under-18 side since

Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...

. On 31 October 2015, at the age of 17, Tuanzebe was named on the substitutes bench for a match against Crystal Palace in the

, the first time he had been a member of a first-team matchday squad.

2016–17 season

On 29 January 2017, Tuanzebe made his Manchester United debut as a 68th-minute substitute, replacing

Timothy Fosu-Mensah Evans Timothy Fosu Fosu-Mensah (born 2 January 1998) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder, centre-back or full-back for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Netherlands national team. He formerly played for ...

during a 4–0

victory over

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

. Four days later, he extended his contract at Manchester United until 2020, with the option of a further year. On 7 May 2017, Tuanzebe started a senior match for the first time, in a 2–0 defeat against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the Premier League. He won the Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year award in May 2017.

2017–18 season

Tuanzebe made his first start of the season against

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

on 24 October 2017, playing a key part in the second goal of the 2–0 victory. On 5 December 2017, he made his European debut in a 2–1 victory over CSKA Moscow in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Loans to Aston Villa

On 25 January 2018, Tuanzebe joined Championship side

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

for the remainder of the season. However, due to suffering an injury and the form of preferred centre-backs

James Chester James Grant Chester (born 23 January 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and is a free agent. Chester began his career with Manchester United but made only one appearance for the club. He had spells on loan at Peter ...

and

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the assi ...

he was only able to make five appearances before returning to Manchester United. In August 2018, after going on United's pre-season tour to the United States, he joined Aston Villa on loan again for the 2018–19 season. In December 2018, he suffered another injury setback which ruled him out until March 2019. He returned from injury to help Villa reach the 2019 EFL Championship play-off Final, playing the full 90 minutes as Villa achieved promotion to the Premier League with a victory over Derby County in the final.

2019–20 season

In July 2019, Tuanzebe signed a new contract with Manchester United until June 2022, with an option for an additional year. He became the youngest player to captain United since Norman Whiteside in 1985, during an EFL Cup victory against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

in September 2019.

2020–21 season

On 20 October 2020, Tuanzebe made his

debut in a 2–1 away win against Paris Saint-Germain. He started his first league game of the season on 27 January 2021, in a 2–1 home defeat to eventual bottom-finishers Sheffield United.

2021–22 season: Aston Villa & Napoli loans

On 8 August 2021, Tuanzebe signed a new two-year contract with Manchester United, with the option of an extra year; that day, he also agreed to rejoin Aston Villa on loan for the 2021–22 season, his third loan spell with the club. On 8 January 2022, Tuanzebe was recalled from his Aston Villa loan, and loaned to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

team Napoli.

International career

Tuanzebe is eligible to represent England or the Democratic Republic of the Congo at international level. Tuanzebe began his international career in June 2016, when he made his first appearance for England at under-19 level, against Mexico. He was a member of the

squad which won all three matches at the Four Nations tournament in October 2016. Tuanzebe was withdrawn from selection for the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as ...

due to club commitments. On 10 November 2017, Tuanzebe made his debut for England at under-21 level, against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Style of play

Tuanzebe's preferred position is at

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, but he can also play as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, and has featured as a

holding 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 ...

. His playing style has been compared to that of teammate

Eric Bailly Eric Bertrand Bailly (; born 12 April 1994) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays for Ligue 1 club Marseille, on loan from club Manchester United, and the Ivory Coast national team. Although he mainly plays as a centre-back, he ca ...

and former

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

international Javi Martínez. Tuanzebe's performance on his first-team debut in a friendly against Wigan Athletic in July 2016 led manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

to remark, "10 minutes is enough! The potential is there, you see it immediately."

Personal life

Tuanzebe was born in Bunia, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He relocated to England with his family at the age of four. He attended

St Cuthbert's RC High School St Cuthbert's Roman Catholic High School is a coeducational secondary school located in the Thornham area of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. History St Cuthbert's was founded as Bishop Henshaw School in 1968 and was Rochdale's first ...

and captained the Year 7 football team to the final of the English National Schools Cup at

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in L ...

in 2009. In the same year, he was awarded Sports Boy of the Year by the Mayor of Rochdale. He also represented his school in cross-country and triple-jump. He is the younger brother of ex- Clitheroe striker Dimitri Tuanzebe. In July 2018, he broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to individually clear a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos, while in Los Angeles on Manchester United's pre-season tour.

Career statistics

Honours

Manchester United *

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. It ...

: 2016–17; 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 b ...

Aston Villa *

EFL Championship play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , t ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual *

: 2014–15 * Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year: 2016–17

References

External links

Profile
at the Manchester United F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuanzebe, Axel 1997 births Living people People from Ituri Province Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers English footballers England youth international footballers England under-21 international footballers Association football defenders Manchester United F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players S.S.C. Napoli players Serie A players Premier League players English Football League players Expatriate footballers in Italy English sportspeople of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Democratic Republic of the Congo emigrants to England