Man Utd: What happened to the 14-year-old wonderkid signed for £1 million in 2007

Manchester United’s ‘Class of 2011’ produced plenty of top talent.

Paul Pogba went onto win the World Cup and move for a record-breaking transfer fee; Jesse Lingard amassed 36 caps for England and scored a winner in the 2016 FA Cup final and Ravel Morrison was considered by some as the greatest talent that the United academy had ever seen.

It might not have been the 1992 gold rush of Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Gary Neville, but boy did it furnish the final years of the Sir Alex Ferguson era with plenty of exciting young talents.

However, sadly, one name that doesn’t roll off the tongue when you think back to United’s 2011 FA Youth Cup winners is John Cofie.

And that’s pretty surprising when you consider how The Sun recounts the fact that Cofie, then just 14 years old, was procured from Burnley’s academy to the tune of £1 million back in 2007.

It might not seem like a staggering fee in today’s climate, but when you consider that the transfer world record at the time ‘only’ stood at £56 million and this is a school boy we’re talking about, the magnitude of the deal really sinks in.

After all, Cofie’s move to the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ made him the youngest million-pound footballer that the sport had ever seen. No pressure, right?

And to make things even more astonishing, there’s good reason to think that he might have had the jump on Pogba – who went onto move for £89 million as professional – during his youth days.

Cofie had thrived under the Head of Football Development at his school, Charlie Jackson, who recounted who opined that the former United starlet was only ever really ran close by Morrison.

Speaking to the Burnley Express in 2020, Jackson explained: “I think at 14 he was the best player. He was better than