Angel Gomes says he left Manchester United to ‘find happiness’ in his football

In an interview with the Independent (h/t Daily Mail), Angel Gomes expressed the reason behind him not renewing his contract and leaving Manchester United in the summer.

The 20-year-old Portuguese midfielder joined the Manchester United youth academy at the age of 6 and made his senior debut for the club in May 2017, where he became the youngest player to play for the club since the great Duncan Edwards in 1953.

Gomes signed his first professional contract with the club in December 2018, but only went onto make 10 senior appearances for the team until the expiration of his contract this August.

The Portuguese, who only featured in 6 games under Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer, spoke about the sacrifice he made in order to choose a new direction for his career and mentioned that leaving his boyhood club was an emotional ordeal.

“It’s such a special club but I just wanted to be able to play and express myself. I was offered a great contract, I had all my family and friends around me, but I decided that I was willing to sacrifice that to pursue a different path. It’s hard to understand how difficult a decision that was. I’m still a United fan. I still watch every game now, whether it’s the first team or the U18s. I could have stayed and gone out on loan but it just felt like I needed a fresh start.”

Angel Gomes ran down his Manchester United contract this summer and joined French club Lille on a free transfer, who immediately loaned him to Portuguese side Boavista.

The youngster talked about not getting enough opportunities despite giving his all in training, and said that he wanted to find ‘happiness’ in his football again.

‘…when you hit a few lows it starts to build up on you. It can be hard to show your emotions and you’ve got to just keep giving your all in training [even though you’re not playing]. But when you go home, deep down you know you’re not quite the same as normal. I’m usually very bubbly and your family notices those little changes in you. I wanted to get back to where I was and find happiness in my football.’ 

The young Portuguese midfielder has enjoyed a blistering start at Boavista in the Liga NOS this season. Gomes has 3 goals and 4 assists in the 5 matches that he has played for the club so far.