Former Manchester United star Axel Tuanzebe played alongside a host of world-class players during his time at Old Trafford, but Congolose defender names a surprise choice as the “best” he’s played with – Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Tuanzebe, 27, is currently playing for Ipswich Town as Keiran McKenna, also formerly of United as a coach, tries to help the Tractor Boys survive in the Premier League this season.
However, the defender began life in professional football at Carrington. He joined the Red Devils’ academy as an 8-year-old, going on to receive the prestigious Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award and captaining the club’s youth team as they won the Milk Cup in 2014.
Tuanzebe made his debut for the first-team against Wigan Athletic under Jose Mourinho in 2017, describing the experience as “crazy“.
But the academy graduate’s most famed performance in a Red shirt came against Paris Saint-Germain and World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe in 2020, with reports crediting Tuanzebe with “pocketing” the French star as United ran out 2-1 winners at the Parc de Princes stadium.
Tuanzebe completed a series of loan moves, including to Aston Villa and Napoli, during this period before eventually leaving Old Trafford on a free transfer to join Ipswich in 2023.
In an interview with The Overlap, the 27-year-old was asked which player was the “best he’s every played with” throughout his storied career.
And despite sharing the pitch and training with stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Juan Mata, and Paul Pogba, Tuanzebe believes German legend Schweinsteiger was the “best”.
“He was 34 at the time, I could not get anywhere near him!” 🇩🇪
Axel Tuanzebe on the best player he’s ever played with 👀 pic.twitter.com/tk5XAZS3Rb
— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) February 24, 2025
Tweet: “‘He was 34 at the time, I could not get anywhere near him!’. Axel Tuanzebe on the best player he’s ever played with 👀.”
“Bastian Schweinsteiger – he was 34/35 at the time, I could not get anywhere near him. He was three or four steps ahead of me. He knew how to control the ball and make me off balance,” Tuanzebe reveals.
“He was incredible in the box. He had the ability to slow down time, the ball, it’s like a ping pong in there. We had a box one time – Rooney, Ibrahimovic, Ashley Young, Michael Carrick, Schweinsteiger, the calibre of players in there. Four or five days you might see him in the middle twice.”
While Old Trafford certainly did not see the best of the former Bayern Munich star, there is a strong argument Schweinsteiger is one of the most ‘complete’ midfielders of his generation with a glittering trophy cabinet to support that claim.
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Darragh Fox
Darragh is a writer for The Peoples Person who spent three years as a history graduate slowly realising football was by far the most interesting thing to write about.
