United legends’ sons follow in their footsteps with United academy at SuperCupNI

Friday was the final day of the 2025 SuperCupNI in Northern Ireland.

Manchester United’s u16s qualified for the finals as they looked to follow in the footsteps of United legends who played in the tournament, formerly known as the Milk Cup.

David Beckham famously captained United to win the Milk Cup in 1991 with a squad including Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes.

Closer to this year’s competing squad, Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney also participated in the Milk Cup for West Ham and Everton respectively.

This week their sons Jacey Carrick and Kai Rooney were both part of the United side who topped their group and defeated County Down to qualify for the final against Southampton.

Broadcast live on BBC, the match was one of the biggest of the young Red Devils’ careers so far.

First half

A very strong Southampton side caused United trouble early on as they dealt with the absence of captain Bassirou Nkoto and Idris Fabiyi, who were both sidelined on crutches.

Darlington Osuchukwu in United’s goal kept the door locked through the early pressure though to give United a chance to stay in it.

United began to find their feet after 25 minutes when they carved open their best chance of the first half. Manu Ziro played through Edson DeJonge-Seiros, who rounded the keeper but was forced to such a tight angle that his attempt flashed across the goal line and wide.

Sam O’Brien then cut inside from left back to force a good save from the Southampton keeper.

Second half

United started strongly in the second half. Rooney and Carrick coming close to rolling back the years when the former laid the ball back to the latter, who fired from 25 yards out. It looked destined to settle into the bottom right corner but a top save from the Saints’ keeper denied him.

Less than a minute later though, some quick one-touch passing saw Southampton break into the box on the left. A cross came in Jude Daniels who finished from close range.

The young Red Devils saw a lot of possession for the rest of the match but it wasn’t until injury time that they threw the kitchen sink at it and looked like finding the equaliser.

With almost the entire team in Southampton’s box the ball fell kindly to Camron Mpofu but the youngster, signed from Reading last year, headed wide and the final whistle blew shortly after to crown Southampton the SuperCupNI champions.

Silverware for United

While United’s u16s boys narrowly missed out on the trophy, the club still came away with some silverware.

In the Junior Girls section, United’s u14s were crowned champions as they blew the competition away with four wins from four.

The girls u16s were also in Northern Ireland for the week and finished in third place.

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