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Defenders (part II)
Centre Back: Mikael Silvestre
Then: Having joined Silvestre in 1999 after stints with Rennes and Internazionale, the versatile Frenchman played centre-back and left-back intermittently for United and racked up a quite amazing 361 appearances for the Red Devils. Later joined Arsenal (43 apps) and Weder Bremen (31) before branching out to try “soccer” with the Portland Timbers (8 apps) and brave Chennai’s heat and Marco Materazzi’s mouth to play 6 times for Chennaiyin in the Indian Super League. Also made 40 appearances for France in between
Now: On retiring, Silvestre took up a director of football role with boyhood club Rennes but left (by mutual consent, they said) after a year and a half on 22 December 2016
Quirky Fact: Manchester United actually got Arsenal to pay nearly a million Euros for the Frenchman. Oh, and he has 5 Premier League winner's medals.
Left Back: Gabriel Heinze
Then: The combative Argentine had joined United the same year as Rooney after building his reputation at Newell’s Old Boys, Real Vallodid, Sporting CP and Paris Saint-Germain (this was before they got super-rich). He spent three eventful years at United, making 83 appearances and left for Real Madrid after a proper ol’ bust-up with Fergie. He later moved on to Marseille before retiring with AS Roma in 2012. He was also a mainstay of the Argentine team and made 71 appearances for Los Albiceleste
Now: Heinze dabbled in coaching (despite not having the requisite licenses) and spent three months with Godoy Cruz in the Argentine Primera Division before getting sacked following a record of 10 GP, 2 W, 2D, 6L.
Quirky Fact: He was the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year in 2004-05; beating out Wayne Rooney to the prize. (the Englishman won it the next year)
