Teenage riot: Marcus Rashford engraves name in Manchester United folklore

When Manchester United published its team sheet for the second leg of its Europa League tie against FC Midtjylland, Marcus Rashford, unknown at the time to even some of the Red Devils' most encyclopedic supporters, was named to the club's bench.

Then the dominoes started to fall.

After Anthony Martial suffered a hamstring injury while warming up, Rashford was inserted into United's starting XI at the last minute, and before he could even process what was happening, made his professional debut at just 18 years of age. Those who turned to Google in search of information on the teenager at kickoff would have encountered a relatively blank Wikipedia page.

Three days later, Rashford is responsible for the burning of FC Midtjylland's mathematical models and the curb-stomping of Arsenal's Premier League title aspirations. Two goals against the Danish club and another pair against the Gunners have converted the youngster into a hero at Old Trafford. He has bought Louis van Gaal some more time, and erased memories of United's inability to score on home soil. Remember, the Red Devils went 11 fixtures at home in all competitions without scoring in the first half.

The meteoric rise begs the question: Where the hell has United been hiding Rashford?

Born and raised in Manchester, Rashford is yet another player to come off the production line at Fletcher Moss Rangers, self-described as "one of the most successful junior football clubs in Manchester" and whose success stories include Wes Brown, Danny Welbeck, Ravel Morrison, Tyler Blackett, and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson. He joined United in 2014, after Manchester City turned him away due to his diminutive stature.

"City had a chance before he went to United because they asked his brother Dwain to do a bit of scouting," Fletcher Moss chairman Ron Jamieson said, according to Jamie Jackson of the Guardian. "They were trying to come through the back door for Marcus. They said: 'We'll make you a scout if you bring a couple of lads down.' And he said: 'I'll bring my brother down.'

"They didn't fancy him because he was on the small side. Dave Horrocks (of Fletcher Moss) is an academy coach for (United's) development centres and I'm a scout for Manchester United so we pushed him towards our development centre in Moss Side and informed Derek Langley (the head of recruitment at United) he was being looked at. They put plenty of time into him to keep the wolves away and signed him in his ninth birthday year."

Whereas City overlooked Rashford because of his size, United did not. As Paul McGuinness, formerly a youth-team coach for the Red Devils, said: "One we saw starting to emerge as he grew into his body more was Marcus Rashford. He put some exciting parts of games together and we saw some exciting things."

Some will suggest Rashford is only being afforded an opportunity at United because of the club's injury dilemma. Others will point to Federico Macheda, who scored on his professional debut for the Red Devils and is currently employed by Cardiff City, as an example of why the hype is premature. That may very well be the case, but the club deserves credit for trusting in its youth policy following the teenager's start to life at Old Trafford.

Upon being asked where Rashford's debut ranked among the best he had seen, Van Gaal replied, according to BBC Sport: "Patrick Kluivert made the winning goal for Ajax in the Super Cup in the Netherlands. Xavi was fantastic against (Real) Valladolid for Barcelona and also Thomas Muller a fantastic debut. He was playing in the second team for Bayern Munich."

While Van Gaal obviously isn't hesitant to place Rashford among impressive company, a more intriguing comparison is the one between the youngster and Wayne Rooney, who scored a hat-trick in his debut for United, and whose knee injury was arguably the reason that the Fletcher Moss product was on the team sheet for the second leg of United's tie against Midtjylland.

Regardless of who he is being compared to, or where his career goes from here, Rashford, barely old enough to drink alcohol in the United Kingdom, already holds a place in United's rich history.