- Raphael Varane’s time at Manchester United
- Celebrating the FA Cup
- Life after United
For a player who struggled with fitness throughout almost the entirety of his time in a Manchester United shirt, history still looks favourably on Raphael Varane. One of the defining centre-backs of his generation, Varane spent the majority of his career at Real Madrid before making the switch to Manchester for £34 million.
Varane swapped a Madrid side that had finished second in La Liga—whilst also reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League—for a United team about to stumble into their worst league finish since 1990.
“It was a club that always made me dream,” Varane said when reflecting on the move. “The stadium, the fans, what it represents.”
The Frenchman would spend just three seasons at Old Trafford, each campaign fractured by injuries. Yet despite the stop-start nature of his spell, he remains remembered as one of the brighter sparks during an otherwise bleak half-decade for the club.
Tactical inequality with Erik ten Hag
Speaking to The Athletic in February 2025, Varane detailed his turbulent spell at United. In his first season at the club—2021/22—Varane played under three different managers: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Carrick during his three-match caretaker spell, and Ralf Rangnick after his arrival in November.
United would eventually appoint Erik ten Hag as permanent manager following a dismal sixth-place finish. The Dutchman’s tactical structure could not have contrasted more sharply with what Varane had experienced in Madrid.
“It was the opposite,” Varane explained. “With fairly rigid patterns of play defined in advance. There was very little flexibility in terms of adapting on the pitch. The game plans were very, very precise, with lots and lots of information. It was different.”
In Madrid and with the French national football team, Varane operated with greater instinct and freedom. Players adapted naturally during matches, constantly communicating and adjusting in real time. Under Ten Hag, however, Varane described things as feeling “blocked”.
There were clear tensions between player and coach. Despite being ten Hag’s first-choice centre-back during the 2022/23 season, the following campaign saw him repeatedly sidelined.
Between October and mid-December, Varane featured in just four of United’s nine matches, playing a total of 18 minutes as the club suffered damaging defeats against Manchester City, Newcastle United, and Bournemouth.
Ten Hag publicly described the decision as “tactical”, though Varane later claimed there was little communication behind the scenes.
“We had a robust discussion. We told each other some truths, but then I didn’t play for almost two months,” Varane explained. “I said I didn’t agree with certain ways of doing things regarding the relationship between him and the team.
“It wasn’t something that I thought was good for the team because some of the players weren’t at all satisfied. It was not good in terms of the relationship with the coach.
“He said, ‘OK, I hear what you said’, and after that I didn’t play.”
Trophy triumphs at Manchester United
Despite the friction with Ten Hag, there is no doubt Varane still enjoyed success during his three years at United—especially under the Dutchman.
In his second season at the club, Varane helped United lift their first trophy in almost six years as they won the League Cup.
Facing Newcastle United in the final, Varane delivered a commanding display, playing all 90 minutes and shutting down Newcastle’s attack as United secured a 2-0 victory. But the defining trophy was always the FA Cup.
United’s route to the final was chaotic. After overcoming lower-league opposition in Newport County and Wigan Athletic, an 89th-minute winner from Varane’s former Madrid teammate Casemiro dragged United past Nottingham Forest and into a quarter-final against Liverpool.
Varane played 85 minutes of that unforgettable 4-3 win, where Amad Diallo scored the decisive goal in extra time.
Just weeks later, however, Varane suffered another muscle injury. He missed the chaotic semi-final against Coventry City—a match United somehow survived after throwing away a 3-0 lead—and there were serious doubts over whether he would return for the final itself.
An outspoken advocate for player welfare, Varane later told Harper: “It’s not just Manchester United’s problem, it’s a global problem. Things are getting worse and worse. It’s a system that has put the players in the red zone.”
But despite the injury setbacks, Varane recovered in time for the final, even getting 21 minutes against Brighton & Hove Albion on the final day of the league season to build match sharpness.
He also offered a rare moment of praise toward Ten Hag for how the Dutchman managed that recovery.
“I also have to recognise what was good,” Varane explained. “He gave me the peace of mind to come back from my injury to play in the FA Cup final. He was counting on me.
“That was very positive, because it allowed me to play my role in the team. We had ups and downs. I can’t say everything was bad. There were complicated moments.”
FA Cup final and wanting to stay at United
United’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City in the 2024 FA Cup final remains one of the finest performances of the ten Hag era—and arguably Varane’s best moment in a United shirt.
In his final appearance for the club, Varane marshalled a usually devastating City attack for large stretches of the game, whilst academy graduates Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho struck to deliver United’s first FA Cup since 2016.
“The players really came together for the same goal with a clear idea of how to play,” Varane explained. “It is not only an individual achievement but a collective one, to make the players believe it was possible.
“The players accepted the challenge and managed to forget everything negative that had happened to really be 100 per cent in this match.”
Varane also insisted the final had never been about proving a point to Ten Hag.
“I wanted the best for the team. Sometimes I said things to the coach, not for me, but for the team, or because players felt things.
“The FA Cup final was not about proving something to him at all. My motivation was to achieve with the team, to make the fans happy and above all to experience this feeling of entering the pitch as a gladiator who returns victorious. It’s the best feeling.”
The build-up to the final had been dominated by uncertainty surrounding Ten Hag’s future.
After an encouraging first season, United had collapsed to eighth in the table, and defeat in the FA Cup final would have condemned them to a campaign without European football for the first time since 2014/15.
Varane later admitted he was “surprised” that Jim Ratcliffe and Dave Brailsford kept Ten Hag in charge, claiming “the connection with the group no longer existed.”
He also revealed that he had wanted to extend his stay at Old Trafford by another year, but after discussions with Brailsford and John Murtough, both sides realised they were no longer aligned.
Manchester United legacy
Speaking on The Bridge—a French-speaking podcast featuring high-profile guests—Varane reflected on both his departure from Madrid and his spell at United.
“I still needed to feel that buzz,” he explained. “I needed something else.
“Madrid was…” he paused. “I can’t describe the experience. It was exceptional, but I had already experienced it, and I felt that I wanted to experience something different.
“To me, only in England, and especially Manchester, can you really feel and experience the passion for football every day. And now that it is over, I don’t regret it at all. It was an incredible experience.”
Varane went on to speak passionately about just how much United had come to mean to him:
“I played, and I loved playing in the Premier League. It made me feel alive. I celebrated the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup more than the Champions League. It was wild.”
“I got there, craved it all, and had a real connection with the fans. It was an incredible experience. I loved it.”
Varane did not spend long enough at United to cement himself as a bona fide club legend. Had Alex Ferguson succeeded in signing him back in 2011, perhaps the story would have looked very different.
But when United fans look back on the 95 matches where a five-time Champions League winner wore the shirt, they will remember him fondly: a towering French centre-back who arrived during one of the club’s bleakest modern periods, yet still carried himself with class, dignity, and moments of genuine dominance.
