From railway workers' team to the Theatre of Dreams

From Newton Heath to Old Trafford

Manchester United did not start out glamorous. The club began in 1878 as Newton Heath, a team of railway workers, and took its current name in 1902. Old Trafford, home since 1910, is now better known as the Theatre of Dreams.

The crest shows a red devil holding a trident, a direct picture of the club's Red Devils nickname.

The Class of '92 and the miracle of 1999

The most loved generation in United's history is the group who won the FA Youth Cup in 1992. Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Butt and the Neville brothers became known as the Class of '92. Beckham turned into a star at the start of the 1996 season, when he spotted the Wimbledon goalkeeper off his line and scored from the halfway line.

This generation peaked with the 1999 Treble. In the FA Cup semi-final replay, ten-man United survived when Schmeichel saved Bergkamp's penalty, and Giggs won it in extra time by beating several defenders on his own. After a 2–0 win over Newcastle in the final, United went to the Camp Nou four days later and trailed Bayern 1–0 in the Champions League final. Then Sheringham and Solskjær both scored in stoppage time to turn the game around. Both goalscorers had come off the bench.

Ronaldo, Park Ji-sung and the night in Moscow

Cristiano Ronaldo was the symbol of United in the 2000s. Signed from Sporting for £12.25 million, he left six years later for Real Madrid for a then world-record £80 million. The best moment in between came in the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow. With the game against Chelsea level at 1–1, Ronaldo missed in the shootout, but Terry slipped and missed too, and Van der Sar saved from Anelka to win it 6–5.

It was also the era of Park Ji-sung, who came through Kyoto and PSV Eindhoven before joining United in 2005. In the 2009 Champions League semi-final at Arsenal, he scored the opener just eight minutes in.

The club's all-time top scorer, Wayne Rooney, belongs to this period too. His overhead-kick winner in the 2011 Manchester derby is rated among the greatest Premier League goals, and in 2017 he passed Bobby Charlton's 249 on his way to 253 goals in 559 games.

Ferguson's last days and beyond

In 2013, Van Persie's hat-trick against Aston Villa clinched United's 20th league title. Later that year, Ferguson's 1,500th and final United game finished 5–5 at West Brom, with ten goals on his last day.

The big cup moments kept coming after Ferguson. Lingard's extra-time volley won the 2016 FA Cup, the club's first since he retired. In the 2019 Champions League round of 16, United lost 2–0 at home to PSG, then won 3–1 in Paris with Rashford's stoppage-time penalty. And in the 2024 FA Cup, a 4–3 quarter-final win over Liverpool was followed by a 2–1 victory over Manchester City in the final.