Manchester United news: Marking Marcus Rashford's rise as starlet celebrates his 19th birthday

Rashford has gone from youth-team player to FA Cup winner

Marcus Rashford celebrates his 19^th birthday on Monday as an England international and one of Manchester United’s first-choice forwards.

A year ago, the teenage sensation hadn’t even made it into the United under-21 picture and was dividing his time between the youth team and completing his a-levels.

While he still continued his a-levels after breaking onto the scene with two goals against FC Midtjylland, the rest of his life was changed as he was thrust into the first-team limelight as a result of injuries and a lack of goals.

Fast-forward seven months and Rashford has established himself as an important first-team member and was recently voted as the runner-up in Fifa’s Golden Boy award, given out to the best player under the age of 21.

A number of Manchester United stars have wished Rashford happy birthday on Twitter, including Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Ashley Young.

Rashford has also won the praise of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who admitted he was surprised by how good he was, as the 19-year-old continues to keep the likes of Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney and Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of the Red Devils’ first team.

Scroll through the gallery at the top to see how Rashford’s blossoming career as transformed over the last 12 months.