LIFE OF BRYAN

BRYAN MBEUMO has been backed to do something not even Cristiano Ronaldo could — raise the standards at Man Utd.

The Cameroonian winger arrived at Old Trafford last month for £71m with more than just goals in his locker.

From the small town of Avallon in France where he was born to joining the Red Devils on one of football’s biggest stages, there’s been one constant in Mbeumo’s rise — he makes those around him better. Professional, meticulous and relentless, it’s what carried him from the shadows at Troyes to Premier League stardom and now to United.

When Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford he was shocked at how the club had stagnated since his first spell under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Despite his efforts to raise the bar — with team-mates even shunning desserts to match his work ethic — he left under a cloud in 2022.

Man Utd have fallen even further since, with an embarrassing 15th-place finish last season seeing them plunge to the lowest point since they were last relegated.

But Mbeumo can help the club return to better days, according to childhood best friend and former Troyes team-mate Franck Momo.

In an exclusive interview he told SunSport “Believe me, Bryan will have a big impact in that dressing room.

“He hates to lose so much it’s crazy. In the beginning he’ll be shy, but once the season goes on, his personality and professionalism will shine. His teammates will follow his lead.”

When Mbeumo joined Troyes at just 14, he wasn’t the flashiest or most talked-about kid in the group.

But even then, he understood that talent alone wouldn’t take him all the way and that to succeed and to climb the precarious ladder of top level football – you needed to have grit too.

The first time anyone outside of France heard of Mbeumo was when he netted twice at the Coupe Gambardella final, France’s version of the FA Youth Cup, to guide Troyes to their first trophy in 62 years. The last player to hit a double in that final was a certain Kylian Mbappe. Mbeumo’s first goal, a thunderous volley, had shades of Robin van Persie. The second sealed a 2-1 win and gave birth to his first ever professional contract.

He’d already made his Ligue 1 debut and played a few games, but Troyes got relegated that season.

There was a silver lining for Mbeumo.

With big earners gone to balance the books, he became a regular. He played 40 games in Ligue 2, scored 11 goals, and caught the eye of PSG, Monaco, and Lens.

They all showed concrete interest in him but he chose to move out of the country of his birth and sign for Championship side Brentford.

At Brentford, the story continued, same Mbeumo, same upward curve. His debut season, with 16 goals in 47 games, helped the Bees to the play-off final, where they lost 2-1 to Fulham.

The next season, with Ivan Toney arriving, Mbeumo adapted his role and this time Brentford won promotion, beating Swansea at Wembley.

In his Premier League debut season, aged 22, Mbeumo scored eight goals in 38 appearances and could have had more had he not hit the woodwork seven times.

He even bagged a hat-trick in the FA Cup against Port Vale. But few knew the personal sacrifice behind the scenes.

He trains like it’s a match so it’s easy to see how far players like that can go, they put in so much effort in their work. — Sun.