AROUND THE GROUNDS: Home Grown

NAME

Darren Fletcher

CLUB

Manchester United

AGE

Born 1st February 1984

HOMETOWN

Edinburgh, Scotland

POSITION

Midfield

SQUAD NUMBER

24

SIGNED FOR CLUB

Darren joined United as a trainee in July 2000 and signed his first full contract with the club on 15th April 2003.

HEIGHT

183cm

DEBUT

Darren Fletcher made his first appearance on the biggest stage of all: the Champion's League against FC Basel in 2002/03. He followed this up with another fine performance at Deportivo La Coruna in the same season.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Darren is regarded as one of the best young players at Manchester United and has already been hailed as .the next David Beckham.. During the summer Darren took part in United's tour of the USA and appeared against Glasgow Celtic, Club Americas and Juventus of Italy (where he partnered United legend Roy Keane in the centre of United's midfield).

In the Reds' final game of their USA Tour, Sir Alex Ferguson rewarded his good performances with a starting place against Spanish giants Barcelona. As a creative midfield player Fletcher has represented Scotland at Youth and Under-21 level. Scotland manager Berti Vogts also gave him his first full Scottish cap against Norway in Oslo on 20th August 2003.

To prove his class, Fletcher came off the bench to score the winner in the Euro 2004 qualifier against Lithuania at Hampden Park - making him a national hero and sending Scotland into a play-off against Holland in the process.