Ángel Di María is Manchester United’s glorious nonconformist

The Argentina winger endured a difficult first season after a bright start at Old Trafford, but the Copa América has seen him back to his brilliant best


A few scornful eyebrows will have been raised this week when Marcos Rojo announced that Ángel Di María is the most talented player in the Manchester United squad. Allowing for Rojo’s understandable bias towards his fellow Argentine, I’m inclined to agree with him – even though there is a possibility that the winger might not be alongside Rojo in a United shirt when next season starts.

Many of Di María’s long-term admirers regretted his failure to confirm the good impression made by a bright start to his Old Trafford career. His resurgence in the Copa América, when his two goals against Paraguay on Tuesday helped Argentina to the final against Chile in Santiago, will have felt like a vindication.
This was a glittering return to form. Everything Di María did at his best, he was doing again. Once more he was looking like a player capable of seizing a big occasion and making the difference.

 In Beijing, seven years ago this week, I watched him score the only goal of the Olympic football final between Argentina and Nigeria, at the age of 20. Thirteen minutes into the second half he sprinted on to a pass stroked behind the full back by Lionel Messi and, in front of a crowd of 89,102 in the Birds Nest, chipped the ball calmly over Ambruse Vanzekin, the West African side’s goalkeeper, presenting victory to Diego Maradona’s team.

 In Beijing, seven years ago this week, I watched him score the only goal of the Olympic football final between Argentina and Nigeria, at the age of 20. Thirteen minutes into the second half he sprinted on to a pass stroked behind the full back by Lionel Messi and, in front of a crowd of 89,102 in the Birds Nest, chipped the ball calmly over Ambruse Vanzekin, the West African side’s goalkeeper, presenting victory to Diego Maradona’s team.

 After a difficult start to his second season, he had fully re-established himself by the time the team won La Liga. In his fourth season in Madrid, after Carlo Ancelotti had replaced José Mourinho, he topped the league’s table of assists and was named man of the match in the Champions League final, when Real beat Atlético Madrid 4-1. It was his dribble and shot in the 20th minute of extra time that provoked the rebound headed home by Gareth Bale to give Real a 2-1 lead.


These extra-time interventions are no coincidence. Among Di María’s virtues is a refusal to give up. He might not be the most elegant of players, or the most efficient in terms of statistics, and his relatively unphotogenic angularity might even have been one of the reasons why Florentino Pérez decided to replace him with the baby-faced James Rodríguez last summer – the president’s most misguided decision since the offloading of Claude Makelele in 2003. But he knows that, as long as the game is in the balance, it’s never too late to strike a decisive blow, and his athleticism gives him the capacity to act on that belief.

The quintessential Di María moment arrived in São Paulo during the 2014 World Cup finals, when Argentina struggled to beat Switzerland in the round of 16. In a notably poor match, a statistic showed that he had lost possession no fewer than 51 times for Alejandro Sabella’s side when, in the last 10 minutes of extra time and with Argentina starting to despair, he suddenly hit a couple of fierce long-range shots, the first tipped over and the second deflected away from goal. And then, in the 117th minute, he swooped in from the right to accept Messi’s pass and strike the sweetest of first-time shots with his left foot inside the far post.