His early performances had many wondering if the France defender was a poor signing, but in 2006/07 he was named the best left-back in the Premier League.
The Dakar-born player moved to United for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £5million, and signed a contract to run until the summer of 2009.
He began his career with Paris St Germain and had spells with Marsala and Monza before signing for Nice in 2000. He spent two years at the club before earning a move to AS Monaco.
A prominent member of the Monaco side that reached the Champions League final in 2004, Evra suffered after players such as Ludovic Giuly and Fernando Morientes, and then coach Didier Deschamps, left the principality team.
Evra was a centre-forward as a youth, before moving out to the left wing. He was moved to left-back in 2003 at Monaco.
Evra is a full France international, though had not played for the country for four years when moving to Old Trafford.
He made his debut in the 3-1 derby defeat to Manchester City. But Evra looked out of sorts and was substituted at half-time.
But he kept his place in the United side and began to look more comfortable in the English game, becoming a big part of the surging form that took United to the top of the Premiership in 2007.
Now an integral part of a hugely successful United side, his performances also earned a return to the France fold and was brought back into the starting line-up during the 2008 European Championships.
After such a shakey start to life at Old Trafford, few would have predicted such success.
He penned a new deal in the summer of 2008 to run for four years.
No comments:
Post a Comment