Praise instead of abuse?! Andre Onana reacts to ‘strange’ support from Man Utd fans after making error-strewn start to spell at Old Trafford

Andre Onana admits to finding it “strange” that fans chose to support him, rather than abuse, during an error-strewn start at Manchester United.

The Cameroon international goalkeeper arrived at Old Trafford in the summer of 2023, with a big-money transfer taking him away from Serie A giants Inter. He was charged with the task of filling the boots of Premier League Golden Glove winner David de Gea.

Onana saw costly mistakes creep into his game early on, leading to questions of his value to the collective cause, but has told ESPN of United supporters having his back: “I received a lot of positive messages when I arrived here and when I was facing difficulty here, [the] message from the fans, from Manchester United fans [across] the whole world there was like, ‘Andre take your time. We know who you are and everything will be all right’. But it was strange because normally a fan, a normal fan is just looking for the result. But I received message[s]… ‘Andre, don’t worry, we are with you. Keep going’. They trust me and I was like, ‘wow, I never had this before’. Most of the time [wherever] you go, when you don’t deliver in the beginning they’re straight. It is difficult. But here they were very nice with me and I think it’s time maybe now to start to pay back now because they were very nice with me.”

Onana has enjoyed an upturn in form of late, with his undoubted quality shining through. He added on seeing patience and persistence rewarded: “Now we are all human being, sometimes you are right, sometimes you’re wrong. So you just have to know how to deal with these kind of things. But I always say you never lose in life, you win or you learn. So when you don’t win, you learn. So you just have to make sure if things are not going how you want – [be] patient keep working and it will. I [don’t know] if it’s today, maybe I hope we can turn everything today, but if it’s not today it’ll be tomorrow. If it’s not tomorrow, be patient. It’ll be after tomorrow. So you have to be patient, but they tell me that you have to be resilient, then you never have to give up. Because if you give up, better don’t step in the pitch. We have been in this game for long already, so we all know what we did to reach this level. I know what I did to reach Manchester United. So I just have to continue working hard and things will be all right for all of us.”

Onana has taken in 43 appearances for United across all competitions this season and will be hoping to figure prominently in their next outing, as Erik ten Hag’s side prepare to face Championship side Coventry in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.