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Rio Ferdinand says player Manchester United sold for just £21m is now playing like Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham

Charles Jones

Tue 11 February 2025 17:45, UK

Manchester United have a knack of selling players only for them to go on and improve elsewhere.

Angel Di Maria fꩲlopped at Manchester United, but he became a star again at PSG and 💝eventually won the World Cup.

Diego Forlan did next to nothing at Maꦿnchester United before becoming one of the most lethal strikers in La Liga, while Gerard Pique became a bona fide legend of the game after leaving Old Trafford too.

There are also some more modern examples as well. Anthony Elanga is a £50m-rated player after leaving United 18 months ago, while Manchester United wanted to re-sign Danny Welbeck at one point after he left the club.

Now, Scott McTominay is flying at Napoli, and speaking on his podcast, Rio Ferdinand has made quite the claim about the man.

• READ MORE: Man City fans left absolutely ecstatic as £50m player could n♉ow be fit to start vs Real Madri♚d

Rio Ferdinand compares Scott McTominay to Jude Bellingham

Ferdinand spoke about how McTominay is playing for Napoli after Jadon Sancho sent🅠 a rather telling message tꦕo Marcus Rashford after his debut for Aston Villa.

Ferdinand noted that MꦯcTominay is on fire at the moment, claiming that he’s playing like prime Jude Bellingham.

“You look at Antony, he’s got a man in the match performance, I think a goal and an assists in two games. It’s like McTominay’s playing like primetime Jude Bellingham at the moment. Like yoಌu’ve got Elanga, who’s a flying winger.”

“Just going back to that freedom message on social media from Jadoꦍn Sancho, it does, like I said before, it does seem like these guys feel a bit more freedom. They’re getting more game time, the likes of Antony, like a sister to Garn, the man of the match performance. McTominay, like I said, is on ღfire.”

Scott McTominay compared to Jude Bellingham

Of course, Ferdinand is being slightly tongue-in-cheek when he compares McTominay to Bellingham, bu🤡t, interestingly, these two aren’t miles away from one another statistically.

Indeed, McTomina൩y has been fantastic this season, and he’s not a million miles away from Bellingham.

Of course, Bellingham is 🍷outdoing McTominay on the assists chart, but it’s worth noting that Bellingham does play wiꦏth the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr, while McTominay’s main attacking outlet is Romelu Lukaku – who, as United fans know, blows hot and cold.

Bellingham is still ahead of McTominay, but the fact that this is even a viable conversat🔯ion is a testament to how much the Scotland international has improved in recent times.

Robbie Savage even said that selling McTominay was a mistake by United.

McTominay would certainly be a key player for United if he was still at Old Trafford, and there must be some at United ๊who regret ever letting the midfielder leave.