“I remember him being not as tall and strong as his teammates, but his technique, his game reading and his left foot were so good that he was the best player we had,” Ferreira says. “If I have to define him as a young footballer in a few words: natural class, talent and love of the game. Even with all those skills, nobody thought that he would progress so quickly. Am I surprised that he plays for Manchester United’s first team? Not at all. But so early?! That’s just amazing! His game has taken on another dimension after a few years in England.”
Ferreira, who later became the youngest ever coach of a Belgian first division team when he took charge of Charleroi at the age of 31, gives further insight into Januzaj’s application and professionalism from an early age. “Adnan was a young boy who really loved the game. He was always disappointed when the training session was over or when I gave the players a day off. To give you an example, in 2008-2009 (U15, but he was one year younger) we played our league games on a Saturday afternoon. The Sunday was a day off but I planned a training session for the players who had not been selected and for the ones who didn’t play much. Adnan played every single game from the first until the last minute, but he came to every Sunday session