Sometimes referred to as «babes», and «red devils» along the way, and simply as United for their millions of fans, PAOK’s opponents on Matchday 4 of the League Phase of the 2024-25 UEFA Europa League belongs, among others, to an elite list of clubs that have won three different European trophies – the European Cup Winners’ Cup, the UEFA Europa League (formerly the UEFA Cup) and the UEFA Champions League (formerly the European Cup). They have also won 20 domestic league championships, 13 FA Cups, 21 Community Shields, seven League Cups, three Champions Leagues, one Cup Winners’ Cup, one Europa League, one Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup, one Club World Cup…

Manchester United were named the world’s most valuable club in 2015 at £1.2 billion, and in the 2016-17 season recorded the highest annual revenue in world football. About £581.2 million! These days, of course, they are in third place, behind Real Madrid and Barcelona.

It is true that PAOK meet Manchester United in somewhat of a period of crisis after the dismissal of former coach Ten Haag. Ruud Van Nistelrooy will continue as interim boss and he is the man who will be in the dugout for the game against the Double-headed Eagle, as the Portuguese Ruben Amorim has been hired, but he will officially take over the team on 11.11.24, after the international break.

The Busy era (1945–1969)

Scotland’s Matt Busby demanded an unprecedented level of control over squad selection, player transfers and training, and he was vindicated. He led the team to second place in the league in 1947, 1948 and 1949 and to the FA Cup in 1948. In 1952 the club won their first league title, followed with titles in 1956 and 1957, becoming the first English team that competed in the European Cup, despite the objections of The Football League, which had denied Chelsea the same opportunity the previous season. En route to the semi-final, which they lost to Real Madrid, the team recorded a 10–0 thrashing of Belgian champions Anderlecht, which remains the club’s biggest win. That group of players had an average age of 22, hence the name «The Busby Babes».

The nightmare of Munich 

On the way home from a European Cup quarter-final win against Red Star Belgrade, the plane carrying Manchester United players, officials and journalists crashed while trying to take off after refueling in Munich, Germany. It was February 6, 1958. Twenty-three lives were lost, including eight players. There had already been two takeoff attempts before the fatal one. Goalkeeper Harry Gregg managed to drag Bobby Charlton and Dennis Violette out to safety after the crash. A badly injured Matt Busby was not given much hope of survival, but after two months in hospital he made a full recovery. A stone plaque, with the image of a football pitch and the names of the dead carved into it, dominates Old Trafford, as does a clock whose hands are always set to 3.30pm, the time of the tragedy.

Sir Bobby Charlton

On 21.10.2023 Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton and survivor of the 1958 plane crash, breathed his last breath at the age of 86. A product of United’s infrastructure departments, he wore the shirt of the «red devils» for 17 years, played 758 games, scored 249 goals, celebrated a Cup Winners’ Cup, three league titles and an FA Cup. He also represented England 106 times, scoring 49 times.

The first European trophy

In 1968 Manchester United became the first English team to win the European Cup, beating Eusebio’s Benfica 4–1 in the final, featuring Bobby Charlton, Dennis Law, and George Best…

The genius of «rock star» George Best

The life of football’s first real superstar, George Best, a Northern Irishman from Belfast, is intertwined with Manchester United. The self-destructive pop star of football, Britain’s ‘fifth Beatle’, had a 11-year spell at United (1963-1974), wearing the number 7 shirt. At 15 he joined the ‘babes’ and two years later, in 1963 , made his debut in the first team. In 1965, United won the championship with the 22-year-old Best leading the team, and in 1968 it was him who led the team to win the European Champions Cup, while he was also named «European Footballer of the Year». He played a total of 466 games, scoring 178 goals, until 1974, when he was kicked out of the club after his priorities had become late nights, alcohol and romance. At noon on November 25, 2005, he breathed his last breath, after a liver transplant, at just 59 years old. He has said many things, one of which was that he would «give all the champagne he’s ever drunk in his life to play alongside Eric Cantona in a big European game at Old Trafford».

Sir Alex Ferguson

Busby left, and 15 difficult years passed, until 1986, when another Scotsman took over. In Sir Alex Ferguson’s 27 years (1986-2013), the Red Devils won a total of 38 titles, including two Champions Leagues (1999, 2008), 13 league titles and six FA Cups. The 1998-99 season was one of the most successful in the team’s history. It included a historic treble, a Premier League and FA Cup, as well as a Champions League title in that sensational final in Barcelona against Bayern Munich (when they came from 1-0 down in stoppage time, eventually winning 2-1). Manchester United became the first English team to win the treble and Alex Ferguson received the title of Sir as a result. On 19 December 2010 Alex Ferguson became Manchester United’s longest-serving manager, surpassing Matt Busby’s record of 24 years, one month and 14 days.

Eric «The King» Cantona

Across the other side of the English Channel, he was worshiped like few others. The Frenchman from Marseille, Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (24.05.1966), stayed on the «island» for five years, won four championships and two doubles with Manchester, and was deified by the club’s fans as he played a leading role in the team’s return to teh top. A world-class footballer, but above all a deeply political activist and maverick character, it was Cantona who not hesitate for a moment to launch a famous kung-fu style kick at a Crystal Palace supporter Matthew Simmons, and he later declared that «my only regret is that I didn’t hit him harder». It was 25.01.1995 in a match against Crystal Palace when the fan in question ran down eleven rows to verbally abuse Cantona, shouting «Fuck you…go back to France…». The press heavily ctiticized Cantona, the English FA banned him from football for nine months, his club punished him with a four-month contract suspension, while he himself was arrested and put on trial (he was eventually sentenced for to 120 hours of community service). In the following days, however, it was revealed that Simmons was a far-right, active member of the fascist BNP (British National Party), and had even been convicted of an attack on a Sri Lankan immigrant…

Double Double

When Eric Cantona was suspended it seemed no coincidence that this was one of the main reasons for the team’s failure to win the title. It was a failure that led to a change in philosophy, with many players being replaced by the youth team. Then began the era of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan GHiggs, Nicky Butt, and Phil and Gary Neville. The start of the 1995–96 season was not the best, but in October 1995 Cantona returned and United won the Double for the second time, making them the first team to win the Double back to back (Double Double).

• Manchester United were founded in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by employees of the local railway company and was based in the Manchester district of the same name. In 1892 it became independent from the railway company and joined the First Class of England. Two years later it was relegated to the Second Division.
• In January 1902, due to debts, it was threatened with dissolution. Team captain Harry Stafford, however, convinced four local businessmen to invest and so Newton Heath was renamed Manchester United and moved to the Old Trafford area. They won two championships (1908, 1911), one Cup (1908) and two Super Cups (1908, 1911), and from then they went through a great crisis until the end of World War II.
• In the early years the team did not have a crest and used that of the city of Manchester (Manchester City Council). In its center is a shield, at the top of which is depicted a sailing ship, in honor of the city’s maritime trading tradition, while at the bottom of the shield is a red devil. To the right and left of the shield two footballs are depicted, while until the early 1970s there were two wheels, a symbol of Lancashire, in their place. Above and below the shield appears the name of the team. Until 1998 the name was displayed in full (Manchester United Football Club), while from 1998 onwards only Manchester United is displayed.
• Manchester United is one of the most popular football clubs in the world, with one of the highest average home attendances in Europe. Its global fan base includes more than 200 officially recognized branches of the Manchester United Supporters’ Club (MUSC), in at least 24 countries. It’s worldwide fans are estimated at 659,000,000.
• The high-profile rivalries are mainly between neighbours Manchester City, Liverpool and Leeds. The rivalry with Liverpool has its roots in a rivalry between the cities during the Industrial Revolution, when Manchester was famous for its textile industry, while Liverpool was an important port. It is worth noting that no player has been transferred between the two clubs since 1964. With Leeds the rivalry dates back to the ‘War of the Roses’ in 1455 between the Houses of Lancaster (where Manchester is located) and York (where Leeds is located in Yorkshire) for the throne of England.
• United have the second highest average fan and friend attendance among European football clubs, behind only Borussia Dortmund.
• 100 years after their first league title in 2008 and 50 years after the Munich tragedy, United returned to the top of Europe, beating Chelsea on penalties in the Champions League final.
• Manchester United was named the world’s best team in 2008, according to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).
• Bryan Robson captained Manchester United for 12 years, longer than any other player.
• Ryan Giggs is the most decorated player in the history of English football (759 appearances).
• Wayne Rooney received an award as the club’s top goalscorer (250 goals) after beating previous record holder Sir Bobby Charlton in 2017.
• In the summer of 2009 Cristiano Ronaldo was sold to Real Madrid for a record fee of £80 million.
• The club’s highest ever transfer fee was for Frenchman Paul Pogba, who joined United from Juventus in 2016-17 for £95m.
• Sir Alex was followed by David Moyes, Ryan Giggs (as interim player-coach), Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Carrick, and Ralf Rangnick… before Eric Ten Haag took over in the spring of 2022 to finally be sacked on 28.10.2024, recording only three wins in the first nine games of the Premier League season. It should be noted that on 5 March 2023, the club suffered its heaviest defeat, losing 7–0 to Liverpool at Anfield.
• On 18 April 2021, United announced that, along with 11 other European clubs, they would establish the European Super League. Reactions against this were strong from many fans, other teams, media, sponsors and even the British government. Two days after the announcement, United backtracked, as, among others, fans stormed Old Trafford in a match against Liverpool (02.05.2021). This is also the first recorded postponement, due to protests, of a Premier League match in the history of the competition.