On the road into the tough Manchester suburb of Wythenshawe where Marcus Rashford grew up, a banner celebrated his latest victory. ‘Rashford 1 Boris 0,’ it proclaimed proudly.
The Manchester United and England striker is the young man who took on the Prime Minister and his Government, persuading them to reverse a decision on school meal vouchers which guarantees 1.3million children will now be fed during the summer holidays.
For Rashford, it has been a deeply personal crusade. One that has its foundations in a difficult upbringing as one of five children raised by a single mother. The 22-year-old has not forgotten his roots.
Marcus Rashford’s school meal vouchers campaign has made him a people’s champion
The England striker’s school meals campaign saw him take on the Government and win
A banner on the road into the Manchester suburb of Wythenshawe where Rashford grew up
The hardship and the sacrifices. The people he left behind, and the person he once was — a hungry little boy reliant on free school meals and the goodwill of friends.
Football was Rashford’s salvation. ‘I understand it could have gone either way for me,’ he acknowledged earlier this week. ‘I’m grateful that it went this way, but it doesn’t make me forget.’
At his first club Fletcher Moss Rangers on Wednesday, in addition to the usual sense of pride was an appreciation that Rashford’s campaign will have a real impact on the current crop of young players.
The 22-year-old was brought up as one of five children, including Dane and Dwaine
‘I was at the club with six of the youngsters this week and what hit home to me was that every single one of them are benefiting from free school dinners,’ Dave Horrocks, Rashford’s first coach, told Sportsmail.
‘Amplify that through the club and there could be 200-300 kids here who will benefit from what he’s done. Proud isn’t a strong enough word.’
Rashford was living in Saltney Avenue in Withington when he signed for Fletcher Moss at the age of six, in an area that was at the centre of a turf war between rival gangs at the time.
He was the youngest of five children, with two brothers and two sisters — Dwaine, Dane, Chantelle and Claire — who lived with their mother Melanie.
A cashier at bookmakers Ladbrokes, she was determined to give her kids a better home and moved them to Fallowfield, close to Manchester City’s old Platt Lane training complex.
Rashford choice of Manchester United over City proved correct as he made his debut aged 18
Rashford also trained with City but chose United at the age of nine when the family moved again to a £150,000 terraced house in Wythenshawe. He has such fond memories of that home and the grass area nearby where he played football, that he has a photo of it tattooed below his left ribcage.
Many years later he purchased the property for his mother and the family still own it, although he has since moved her into a plush six-bedroom mansion.
Rashford remembers going to breakfast club at Button Lane Primary School in Wythenshawe and benefiting from free meals. He remembers the friends who invited him round for dinner to make sure he ate, and the parents who went out of their way to give him a lift to training.
‘I’d never moan,’ he recalled. ‘If there’s food on the table, there’s food on the table. If not, I had friends who understood my situation.’
After his difficult upbringing Rashford has risen to become a regular for club and country
It was Melanie, a devout Christian, who pushed for Marcus to join United’s academy programme a year early at the age of 11 so he could benefit from better accommodation and education.
He was studying a BTEC in sport at Ashton-on-Mersey School when he burst into the first team at United in February 2016, scoring four goals in four days against FC Midtjylland and Arsenal.
Now an established star for club and country, he is seen by United as potential Ballon d’Or winner and they rewarded him with a new £200,000-a-week contract last summer.
There is the £1.8m home close to his team-mate and close friend Jesse Lingard among the Cheshire set in Wilmslow, and the superstar profile. In February, sponsors Nike took Rashford to the Super Bowl in Miami where he was pictured with US rap star and Roc Nation founder Jay Z.
But for all the trappings of fame, England striker Rashford has never strayed far from his roots
But for all the trappings of fame, Rashford has never strayed far from his roots. He is represented by his brothers Dwaine and Dane, who have guided his career carefully.
His mother instilled the importance of good values and he has been dating his PR executive girlfriend Lucia Loi away from the limelight, avoiding many of the pitfalls young Premier League players face these days. Friends describe how he still turns up to eat at J’s Rhythm, a Caribbean takeaway in Northenden close to where he was brought up.
It’s why Rashford has fought so hard to help ease the poverty he witnessed as a child. It began with the In the Box campaign to help Manchester’s homeless over the Christmas period.
Rashford had not forgotten what he saw for the first time travelling through the city centre on the No 41 and No 143 buses on his way to train in Salford.
Rashford has become immensely popular outside of Manchester following his campaign
At the beginning of lockdown, he realised the danger of local kids just like him who rely on free dinners missing out while schools were closed. Rashford joined up with food charity FareShare to raise over £20m to feed them.
But there was still the problem of what would happen when the free meal voucher scheme stopped during the school holidays.
Rashford took his campaign to a national scale, lobbying the Government to continue the scheme throughout the summer with a heartfelt letter to MPs this week.
The plea was initially rejected before Boris Johnson relented and pledged £120m to a Covid summer food fund that will benefit children nationwide. Liverpool and City — United’s fiercest rivals — were among the first clubs to salute Rashford’s achievement.
Rashford couldn’t sleep the night before Boris Johnson revealed his U-turn on the meals
He is said to care so passionately about the cause and been so nervous about the outcome that he couldn’t sleep the night before the Prime Minister’s U-turn.
‘I was obviously shocked,’ said Rashford on Wednesday. ‘It is a big decision for someone to make and I’m just grateful that the Prime Minister did change his decision and he understood.
‘I spoke to him and thanked him for that. It’s a nice feeling but I’m just happy that people’s lives, and people’s summers especially, have been changed for the better.’
It will not end here, however. ‘This is only going to be successful throughout the summer period so we’ve bought ourselves six weeks of time now to plan and figure out what’s next and keep taking steps forward,’ he added. ‘I don’t want this to be the end of it because there are definitely more steps that need to be taken.’
Rashford is now a household name – the man has a sense of humour as well as a heart of gold
On Friday night in London, Rashford will return to his day job when Manchester United play Tottenham. It will be his first game since January when he was diagnosed with a double stress fracture in his back.
The young boy from Wythenshawe is a household name now, even if Health Secretary Matt Hancock mistakenly referred to him as ‘Daniel’ on television on Wednesday.
‘I’ve been called worse names than that!’ was Rashford’s response. The man has a sense of humour as well as a heart of gold.