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Manchester United is one of the most famous clubs in European football. The most successful English football club, Manchester United have had some fabulous players donning the famous red jersey.
But there are a few footballers who made their names worth elsewhere. Since the Manchester United squad is always full of superstars, it is often easy to forget some of the lesser-known players who played for the club even in a title-winning season. United's transfer antics have seldom let them down, the following being the exceptions to this.
Everyone knows United signed Ronaldo and Kleberson together but it was Ronaldo who, outshone everyone to become the best in the world and Kleberson's United career never really took off, but there are other players too whose name in this list will surprise you for sure!
#5 Jonathan Spector, Manchester United 2004
Jonathon Spector played more than 250 matches in the Premier League and the Championship, but out of those 250, only 3 were for Manchester United.
Spector signed for United in 2003 from Chicago Fires and debuted against Arsenal in the community shield in 2004. He went to Charlton Athletic for a year on a loan deal and was eventually sold to West Ham in 2006.
It is at West Ham where the defender played a majority of matches before moving to Birmingham to play 153 matches for them.
The US international currently plays for Scottish club Hibernian.
#4 Jordi Cruyff, Manchester United 1999
Jordi Cruyff has achieved a lot during his short stint at United. He was a part of the squad that won the Premier League, Champions League, and the FA Cup. Yeah, you guessed it right, he was the part of the 1999 treble-winning squad but had limited appearances.
Jordi was signed from Barcelona for a fee of £1.4 million on a four-year contract. During his time at United, the attacking midfielder/ striker made 34 appearances and scored 8 goals for the Red Devils. He played eleven times and scored twice in the 1998–99 season before a loan deal with Celta Vigo took him back to Spain in January 1999. He scored twice in eight games for the Spaniards before returning to United. His career at United was shadowed with injuries which made it difficult for him to establish himself in the first team. He left the club in 2000 when his contract expired
There are no prizes for guessing Cruyff's father - legendary Johan Cruyff. Cryuff played for two national teams - Catalonia and Netherlands.
The former Dutch international now manages the Ecuador national team.
#3 Giuseppe Rossi, Manchester United 2004
Rossi was a very good striker in his career, but not for United, where he could just make 5 appearances during his 4-year stay which included loan spells to Parma and Newcastle.
The Italian striker was bought by United from Parma at the age of 17 by buying out his contract.
His first-team debut came on 20 November 2004, at home to Crystal Palace in the fifth round of the League Cup, as an 84th-minute substitute for David Bellion.
He was sold by Untied to Villarreal where he finally settled and scored above 50 goals in 136 appearances for the Spanish giants.
Interesting fact - Although Rossi did not play in the League Cup final against Wigan Athletic, Nemanja Vidić (who made a seven-minute cameo at the end of the game) gave his medal to Rossi for his contribution to the team's success in the earlier rounds.
Some Fifa Stalwarts still know how to play with him in a United jersey in FIFA 07.
#2 Ryan Shawcross, Manchester United 2006
The Stoke City mainstay was a part of Manchester United from 2006 to 2008 but made a mere 2 appearances.
He was loaned out to Belgian side Royal Antwerp in his first season where he made 22 appearances and scored 3 goals before returning to United. Shawcross's second loan spell was at Championship side Stoke City where he made 26 appearances and scored 6 goals. This loan deal later materialized into a permanent one in 2008. Shawcross still plays as an established center back for the Potters.
United sold the academy product to Stoke for a fee of £1m which then rose to £2m due to the number of his appearances and the fact that Stoke got promoted to the Premier League.
Both his United appearances came in the league cup as a substitute against Crewe Alexandria and a 1-minute appearance against Southend United. He came up the ranks through the academy. This bloke can still do it in a cold windy night at Stoke!
1 Kieran Richardson, Manchester United 2002
Kieran Richardson made 41 appearances for United from 2002 until 2007 during which he scored 2 goals for the Manchester giants.
He made his debut for United in the Champions League against Olympiacos. During his stay at United, he earned three trophies but is still never talked about for his performances as a Red Devil. Ferguson was unabashedly vocal in criticizing Richardson for his and the team's dismal performance against Crew Alexandria in the League Cup in 2007. Ferguson declared that Richardson and some other players would benefit from playing in United's reserve team for some time.
Richardson also played for former United legend Bryan Robson when he was managing West Bromwich Albion in 2005 and Robson even made an offer to extend his loan stay at West Brom but the attacker wanted to cement his place in the United starting lineup.
He played a majority of his career games for Sunderland as a winger, as a right-back and even a central midfielder.
