Manchester United star David de Gea has some 'great' memories in Europa League

The Europa League was David de Gea’s first trophy in club football, the Madrileno still a teenager when he played for Atletico Madrid in their 2010 final win against Fulham in Hamburg.

De Gea moved to Manchester United a year later and has featured more in the Europa League than perhaps he would have expected. United didn’t take part in the competition in the 16 years before he joined them - a spell in which United played Champions League football every single season, winning the competition twice.

In the 12 seasons since De Gea moved to Manchester, United have played in the secondary Uefa competition - one fans used to mock - six times. However, those fans wouldn’t turn their noses up at lifting the Europa League in Budapest next May.

De Gea didn’t play when the team won the competition in 2017, a run to the final masterminded by Jose Mourinho against a young Ajax side. In 2021, he was on the pitch for 120 minutes of the Gdansk final against Villarreal but then saw his penalty, United’s 11th, saved.

Speaking ahead of United’s latest Europa League game against Sheriff Tiraspol on Thursday, De Gea said: “It’s a great competition. Of course in my opinion we should be playing in the Champions League, but this is a competition we have to play for, we will go with everything, I have very good memories.”

Six hundred United fans have tickets for the club’s first ever game in Moldova, while others have travelled to the country of 2.6 million.

United lost their opening group game 1-0 to Real Sociedad last week, while Sheriff won 3-0 away. Their home games have been shifted from the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria to the Moldovan capital of Chisinau.

“We lost the first one so we have to try to win the game tomorrow