Forty years on since Norman Whiteside’s Man United debut

A full first-team debut followed in the final game of the 1981/82 season and, by then, he had turned 17 and signed a new contract with his boyhood club. Not content with providing the assist for Bryan Robson’s opener, he added the second in a 2-0 win over Stoke City to become United’s youngest scorer.

Even more remarkably, he was called up to Northern Ireland’s World Cup squad for the tournament in Spain. Not only did he break Pele’s record as the youngest player in finals history but he was also a major contributor to Billy Bingham’s side.

“It was a great year for me,” Norman added on his UTD Podcast episode. “I made my debut for United and for my country at a young age. The daft thing is the physio Jim McGregor was the Northern Ireland physio at the same time. Eric Harrison, God bless him, used to be with Jim at Everton and with Billy Bingham, so the three of them all knew each other. So they were giving me little hints in the medical room: ‘Keep going, son. Billy is watching.’

“Eric used to have monthly meetings to tell you what your progress was like, which was brilliant, and he said to me at one of the meetings, keep doing what you’re doing and you might have a surprise at the end of this season. The surprise was obviously that I went to the World Cup!”