Outstanding Fellaini deserves to be recognized for standout season

Mistaken identity for most footballers means being booked when your teammate is the guilty party, but not Maroune Fellaini. Usually the big bouff anted Belgian behemoth can’t be confused with anyone – so recognizable is he on the pitch – but the same is not true off it – certainly not when his twin brother is in the Swissotel in Istanbul. One natty Afro was taken for another and soon reports were going around the world that the footballing Fellaini, who is out of contract at the end of the season, was discussing a move to Besiktas.

Fellaini will be able to negotiate with clubs in the coming transfer window – a situation his manager Jose Mourinho describes as “worrying” – and putting aside the fact that one of the game’s readily identifi able footballers probably wouldn’t enter illicit transfer talks in a hotel lobby, the rumors were given extra weight because he has been linked with a move to the Turkish Superlig several times during his Manchester United career. Most recently it was a transfer to Galatasaray in the summer but Mourinho dismissed as out of hand – Fellaini was “too important.”

Mourinho values Fellaini but his national team manager Roberto Martinez might value him even more. Martinez played Fellaini in Belgium’s dead rubber against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last international break despite the team being long since qualifi ed for Russia. Fellaini has been out injured since but maybe Martinez felt he had no choice but to play a footballer that “just missed out” on a Ballon d’Or nomination, as he recently told So Foot.

“He does a job,” is how Fellaini’s willingness to perform instructions is often talked about and he has indeed done a job at United. Even before his recent renaissance under Mourinho, Fellaini opened the scoring in the FA Cup semifi nal against Everton and then played all 120 minutes of the FA Cup fi nal win that was Louis van Gaal’s last game in charge. Last season he scored in the League Cup semi and then again in the Europa League semifi nal. United went on to win both and by the time of the Europa League fi nal, Fellaini was fi rst choice and involved in the second goal of United’s 2- 0 win over Ajax.

This season he has done even more of a job. When Paul Pogba was stretchered off against Basel in September, Fellaini came on and won the game, scoring one and setting up another. He had scored four goals in eight games until his injury and has been missed during his side’s recent blip. Fellaini is expected to be back in action for United soon – certainly much sooner than his midfi eld partner and a player many genuinely mention in terms of the Ballon d’Or – Pogba.

Fellaini has become unrecognizable from the player who signed from Everton and toiled under both David Moyes and Van Gaal; from a fi gure of fun, he had become a serious part of Mourinho’s team. He will always sell more novelty wigs than replica shirts and he may never be recognized for a Ballon d’Or but there’s no mistaking that Manchester United could do with his return as quickly as possible.