Priest who used to play for Man Utd opens up on watching crew now after returning to membership

On Mar 2, 2025

Footballer-turned-priest Philip Mulryne explained how he keeps tabs on Manchester United from the monastery he now calls home after returning to the club

06:30, 02 Mar 2025Updated 13:57, 02 Mar 2025

Former Manchester United player Philip Mulryne during his inaugural mass at St Oliver Plunkett Church in West Belfast following his ordination.

Philip Mulryne manages to keep up with Manchester United’s fortunes despite not having access to a TV(Image: PA)

Philip Mulryne, who is now a priest, has opened up on his passion for Manchester United after returning to the club.

Mulryne, 47, who joined United at 16 and won the FA Youth Cup in 1995, made his Premier League debut against Barnsley on the final day of the 1997/98 season. He left for Norwich City in 1999, making around 200 appearances for the Canaries before spells with Cardiff City, Leyton Orient and non-league King’s Lynn.

After retiring, he began his journey to priesthood in 2009 and was ordained eight years. Speaking at an event celebrating United’s Academy, Mulryne spoke of his passion for the Red Devils and revealed how he keeps up with the modern game despite not having access to a television.

“We don’t have TV in the monastery,” he said via Belfast Live. “We have a room with a couple of computers, so I watch the three-minute highlights. I get all the highlights, so I keep in touch with it.”

On being back at the club, he added: “I’ve only been back here once, apart from today, in the last 20 years. I took 100 young people from a school that I was teaching in to a game against Newcastle, maybe about eight years ago.

“It was an unbelievable opportunity to see their faces and to be around the place again. I do keep in contact with it as much as I can.”

Manchester United's Philip Mulryne during a pre-season friendly match against Birmingham City at St Andrew's in Birmingham

Mulryne made a handful of first-team appearances for Manchester United(Image: PA)

During the visit, Mulryne shared a heartwarming story about Alex Ferguson‘s reaction to him suffering a broken leg following his United departure. He recalled: “First of all, he gave me my debut. A year after I signed for Norwich, I broke my leg. It nearly ended my career.

“I woke up in hospital that night and the first phone call I got was the gaffer, offering that I could come back to the club for all my rehabilitation, and I had left the club a year.

“That was unbelievable for me and that was testament to the personal element to the club, not just the on-the-field, off-the-field attention to the person. That’s a wonderful testament to the club and the people in it.”

Sir Alex Ferguson made an incredible gesture after Mulryne suffered a broken leg(Image: John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)

He likened his religious superior to the role of a football manager, adding: “I have a superior in the monastery that I answer to, like a manager, like a gaffer. All these things have been great. I had a most wonderful career. It was a dream to come here and play.”

Comparing the game with religion, he said: “I went to a lot of schools to talk to young people and teachers, and one thing they would ask is, is there any comparison between your life as a footballer and now as a priest?

“I live in a monastery, so I am more of a monk, really. And it’s not on the surface, but there are a lot of the qualities there. They were saying, sacrifice, giving yourself to something greater than you, in the sense that I live in a community of brothers, there are 15 of us in the monastery.

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“So there is a sense of dependence on each other, the kind of things that Man United taught me, all these virtues and characteristics that you learn from being here.”