Manchester United without a doubt is one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Football fanatics consider Old Trafford as the Mecca of football. Most of the supporters consider it the soul of English football.
It would be a very difficult task to gather a bunch of people who don’t know about Manchester United. Even if you are not a football fan or don’t know much about the game, almost every one knows about this club. Manchester United also known as the Red Devils
is also one of the richest football clubs in the world.
Over the past decade, Manchester United has created a legacy for itself and every inspiring footballer wants to play for this football club. One interesting fact that not many people know is that Manchester United got its original stadium destroyed during
the Second World War. This happened due to excessive bombing by the Germans. Also, the original colour of Manchester United was green.
As 2010 is about to end, we decided to refresh your memories with Manchester United’s history from 2000-09. Manchester United started this century in an amazing way. They entered a brand new competition ‘The FIFA Club World Championship’ in Brazil by foregoing
their participation in FA Cup of which they were the former champions. In January, United could not get a silver medal in South Africa. When they got back to England, they won their sixth Premiership title early in April, without any replacement for Peter
Schmeichel.
Fabien Barthez joined United in 2000 as other goalkeepers including Mark Bonich tried but failed to prove themselves in 1999-00 seasons.
The outstanding goalkeeper helped United to win their third consecutive title in 2000-01. Liverpool had won three consecutives titles under the supervision of two different managers Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.
United’s boss Sir Alex Ferguson is the first football manager to have the honours of completing a hat-trick. The sparkling run in 2000, 2001 and 2002 is still remembered by most of the people who follow football like a religion.
In 2002, a major signing done by United was Rio Ferdinand, who was England’s best performer at the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea. Rio Ferdinand gave the strength to United’s defence which was lacking, since the departure of Jaap Stam to Lazio.
Although Ferdinand helped United to win their Premiership title in May 2003 but at the end of the year he was suspended for 8 months after failing to attend the mandatory drug test at Carrington.
In that period, United lost to Arsenal again, but won the FA Cup for the record 11th time beating Millwall 3-0 in the 2004 final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. In 2004, United also won the silverware as they defeated Wigan Athletic in the Carling
Cup final.
In 2006-07, Owen Hargreaves, Carlos Tevez, Anderson and Nani, were added to the team and United recovered from the slow start to the season and performed well in the entire campaign.
Sir Alex’s men tried their best to defeat the last obstacle Barcelona in the Champions League Finals but could not.
In December, Manchester United team flew to Japan to compete in FIFA Club World Cup. In finals against Ecuador’s Liga de Quito, an individual goal made by Wayne Rooney was more than enough to crown United World Champions.
A list of titles won by Manchester United during the decade:
FA Premier League/ Football league Division one
2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009
Football League Cup
2006, 2009, 2010
European Cup/ UEFA Champions league
2008
FIFA Club World Cup
2008
FA Cup
2004
Tags: