daniel chigunwe
FROM looking like just another expensive flop to one of the best goalkeepers in the Prem.
It has been some year for Andre Onana, arguably Manchester United’s most improved player.
In fact, Onana is leading the race for the Golden Glove with five clean sheets in 12 Prem games this season,.
This is one more than Liverpool’s Alisson, Everton’s Jordan Pickford, Arsenal’s David Raya and Nottingham Forest stopper Matz Sels. Although Onana, 28, saw Ipswich’s Omari Hutchinson find a way past him to level in Sunday’s 1-1 draw, Ruben Amorim would have been staring at defeat in his first game as United boss but for his keeper.
The Cameroonian made two brilliant saves to deny Liam Delap.
At one time you only needed to get it on target to beat Onana, signed in a £47.2million deal.
He arrived at Old Trafford in the summer of 2023 with a big reputation having just reached the Champions League final with Inter Milan, losing 1-0 to Manchester City.
But eyebrows were already being raised in pre-season when he called out former skipper Harry Maguire after conceding a goal in a friendly with Borussia Dortmund in Las Vegas.
United were quickly looking like they had gambled and lost, having let David de Gea leave when his deal ran out.
In Onana’s first outing at Old Trafford in a pre-season game against French club Lens he was lobbed from 50 yards.
Then in the opening match of that Prem season he was very lucky not to concede a late penalty after clearing out Wolves’ Sasa Kalajdzic.
The next month Onana allowed a weak shot from Bayern Munich’s Leroy Sane to crawl under him in a 4-3 Champions League defeat in Germany.
He was recruited for his distribution skills as well as his shot-stopping but a hospital pass to Casemiro led to a red card for the Brazilian in a 3-2 home defeat to Galatasaray.
He conceded two savable free-kicks in the 3-3 return against the Turkish side, having let another shot squirm under his body against Brentford.
Onana admitted he found the switch to a different country, league and team a problem at first.
But United fans would eventually see why Erik ten Hag signed his former Ajax No 1.
By the end of his debut campaign he had made more saves than any other keeper in the Premier League with 149.
United are a lowly 12th now after the Portman Road draw but Onana boasts the most league shut-outs. He looks more like an athlete than when he arrived and has grown into someone United can rely on.
Onana has been achieving things off the field, too — yesterday the international players’ union Fifpro gave him the Player Impact Award.
That is for setting up the Andre Onana Foundation, which provides free medical care and surgeries for underprivileged children and adults in his native Cameroon and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Doctors have performed more than 1,200 operations since 2021.
The foundation also provides schools for orphans.
Onana said: “The foundation means a lot to me. It makes me see things differently.
“You see people who have nothing, yet they look happier than people who have everything.
“They didn’t want to be in that position but destiny made it that way and they are making the best out of that situation.”—Sun
Online Reporter