Rashford’s record at his age ‘compares to Ronaldo’

Southgate says ‘special talent’ can be bracketed with a predecessor at United, writes Jason Burt

Marcus Rashford is a special talent whose record at his age compares favourably not just with Harry Kane but with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Southgate believes. The England manager also argued that Jose Mourinho “thinks the world” of Rashford, even though the striker has grown frustrated at the number of starts he has made at Manchester United, especially in his favoured role of centre-forward.

Rashford’s importance to England was underlined by his

‘Jose thinks the world of Marcus, but he has got a difficult job to do’

predatory goal in the unconvincing 1-0 friendly victory over Switzerland on Tuesday. It followed on from his strike against Spain last Saturday as Rashford pushed his case to be a regular starter for his country.

“Yes he is,” Southgate said when asked whether Rashford, 20, was a special talent. “I think Harry at that age had hardly played anywhere near the matches for Spurs.

“Some of the stepovers and things Ronaldo was doing at that age, he wasn’t converting them into the number of goals, so we have got to give him time to develop.

“He has still played a lot of football, although maybe not the continuous starts and I’m really pleased for him that he leaves here full of confidence.”

Comparisons with Kane and Ronaldo are possibly over the top but, in essence, Southgate is