It’s not every day you see a footie ace switch sides in the fierce Manchester rivalry, but some have dared to do it think Peter Schmeichel, Owen Hargreaves, and Brian Kidd.
Yet, direct transfers are as rare as a sunny day in Manchester. Denis Law and Carlos Tevez left Manchester United supporters gutted when they jumped ship to Manchester City without so much as a breather.
But in 2012, young gun Frederic Veseli took the rivalry up a notch. After three years with City, he was itching for more game time to prove his worth in the big league.
READ MORE: ‘I couldn’t watch football for months after having to call time on career at Man Utd’
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With his contract at City winding down, boss Roberto Mancini was keen to keep him on board. Veseli was open to staying if he could get out on loan to rack up some serious playtime.
Speaking with The Athletic in 2022, Veseli spilled the beans about his switch: “We could never agree terms. Mancini would ask me all the time what was happening. I carried on playing.
(Image: Coventry Telegraph)
“I played against United’s reserves who had Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager. United had a lot of first-teamers, we had reserves only and we drew 1-1. Fergie was there watching. I had a really good game,” reports the Mirror.
A chance encounter in a pub proved to be the turning point in Veseli’s move to United. The defender bumped into the club’s assistant Rene Meulensteen while on his way to pick up his girlfriend, and their conversation soon turned to football and his situation at City.
At the time, City’s football administrator Brian Marwood had made it clear that unhappy youngsters were free to leave rather than disrupt the team’s balance. Veseli revealed: “Mancini was disappointed and was always asking me to renew.”
“I didn’t know what to say to him. My contract was up and City released me and signed a paper saying I could leave on a free. The next day, I drove to City’s training ground at Carrington to collect my stuff. I didn’t tell anybody what I was going to do next.
(Image: Manchester United via Getty Imag)
“I told the gaffer that I was leaving the club and he asked me where I was going. I told him ‘United’. He couldn’t believe it, but he had to take training. He wished me good luck.”
United officially announced Veseli’s signing on Transfer Deadline Day. However, for Veseli, his experience wasn’t exactly a fairytale.
He only managed to notch up 23 games for Manchester United’s reserves and U21s between 2012 and 2013, before he packed his bags for Ipswich Town.
His time as a Tractor Boy also didn’t catapult him into the spotlight, as he never got to lace up for the first squad but instead found himself shipped out on loan to Bury and Port Vale.
Finally settling at Port Vale in 2015, once again his football journey took him through clubs like Lugano, Empoli, Salernitana, Benevento and Faith Karagumruk.
Fast forward to today, aged 31, Veseli’s career seems to have hit a standstill with no current club to his name proof perhaps that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, especially not for this former Red Devil.