WHEN Manuel Ugarte spoke to the in-house broadcasters at Paris Saint-Germain towards the end of last September, he would have still been envisioning a long and successful career in the French capital.
The seven-and-a-half-minute chat, helpfully subtitled in English for PSG's British website, looks back on Ugarte's first experience of a French 'Classique, the showdown between the country's two biggest clubs and two largest cities.
Paris Saint-Germain vs Marseille is a clash of culture and style as well as a big football match.
On this occasion, PSG had won 4-0 in what was Ugarte's sixth start for the club. An interview teeing him up as a key cog in Luis Enrique's team turned out to be premature and a year in Paris will come to an end with a £42.3m switch to Manchester United.
United's recruitment team were aware of Ugarte last summer, when he moved from Sporting in Portugal to PSG for EUR60m. At that stage, they were still happy with Casemiro, but as the Brazilian's game regressed, they alighted on his fellow South American as the ideal replacement.
His stop-start spell in Paris didn't put them off and his performances for Uruguay under Marcelo Bielsa in this summer's Copa America were further confirmation of his talent.
This story is from the August 29, 2024 edition of Manchester Evening News.
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This story is from the August 29, 2024 edition of Manchester Evening News.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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