On January 8, De Gea wrote on Instagram: "New year, new challenges. ”
But it doesn't have much to do with football, as the new challenge has to do with the franchise of all his esports teams. Obviously, this has something to do with the upcoming new season of League of Legends, or possibly Counter-Strike 2. Some sources told TA that if you're really keen on gaming, then this is really a big deal for De Gea.
There's nothing wrong with that. In addition to football, professional athletes sometimes dabble in areas of interest and take some business ventures. If you're really tired or getting worse, it's not impossible to change the track to relieve the situation.
But when David De Gea left United at the end of last season – the club pulled out of contract talks in order to sign Onana from Inter as his replacement – he said it was clearly a bit of an anomaly when he said it was "the right time to take on a new challenge and bring himself back on his feet in a new environment". A season away from the field is not what he wants.
He had less than two months left to find a new club before the summer window closed last year. It's not an ideal state for a goalkeeper who is used to playing at the top level, but the back-and-forth of options doesn't really inspire him to join a new team. In addition to the inevitable interest from the Saudi league, Inter are also likely to opt to replace Onana with him, but due to De Gea's lukewarm attitude, the Serie A side have instead signed Sommer from Bayern.
As a free agent, De Gea could have signed for a new club after the window closed last summer, but he still doesn't seem to have taken that last chance. Some say Newcastle wanted to replace the injured Pope with him, but that didn't materialise either. Then, after the transfer window opened in January, De Gea had more serious discussions with Riyadh youth in the Saudi league and with Nottingham Forest in the final week before the transfer deadline. But again, neither of these potential transfers has made a bigger breakthrough.
Nottingham Forest are interesting to do, with the hope of convincing De Gea that a move would help him in his career, and that joining a Premier League club on a short-term loan would provide him with the perfect platform to show. He can use this platform to remind other teams that he is still capable and attract potential suitors to pitch higher this summer.
But De Gea was unimpressed.
So, while there may be more options to choose from, the January winter window has closed and David is still yet set to join a new club – or find a new challenge that will convince him that it's time to return to the game. Therefore, he can only "push" himself "in the new environment".
He certainly has the right to wait for a more attractive ** than Nottingham Forest and Riyadh Youngsters, who are currently only two points above the Premier League relegation zone and plagued by potential point deductions; Riyadh Juniors are only 11th in the Saudi league. For a goalkeeper, the current form of these two teams can be very frustrating. David De Gea was Manchester United's number one goalkeeper for 12 years, winning the Manchester United Player of the Year award four times, being named to the PFA of the Year five times and even winning the Premier League's Golden Glove award last season when the Reds were drawing to the end of his career.
But the longer he stays away from the pitch, the harder it will be for us to see him return to his former peak form – playing as the number one goalkeeper at a top club and helping the team challenge for the title, as well as getting a hefty salary.
The situation is a bit complicated for De Gea. Over the past decade, top teams have increasingly prioritized goalkeepers who are adept at organising attacks. De Gea was indeed a good goalkeeper in his prime with the Red Devils, but he was more adept at making saves than taking the initiative like Alisson, Ederson, Manuel Neuer or Onana.
When Arsenal and Chelsea were looking for a new goalkeeper in August last year, Raya and Alexis Sanchez were selected respectively. Real Madrid opted to sign Kepa Arrizabalaga on loan from Chelsea after Thibaut Courtois suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in August last year. These are four of the 10 richest clubs in world football, including Manchester United, but they all want to sign a goalkeeper who is more adept at possession than free signing David De Gea.
In some ways, this is similar to the situation Ronaldo faced when he decided to leave Manchester United in the summer of 2022. The number of European clubs that can afford his salary – and the stages he may find suitable for him to showcase his talent – is very small. At any of these clubs, you'd be hard-pressed to imagine any of them being able to give the aging Ronaldo more opportunities from a team style standpoint, so he was forced to join Riyadh Victory and become an ace in a niche and less competitive league.
At some point, De Gea may have to lower his standards. It may not fall as low as Nottingham Forest or Riyadh's youth, but these viable options will be somewhat lower than he expected. Or, if given the opportunity, he could try to attract the top teams in European football as the number 2 goalkeeper and then compete for a starting spot once he joins.
In the past few weeks, he has been told that he will benefit from a short-term loan deal with Nottingham Forest in order for him to get more shows. But his attitude suggests that he is still as confident as ever, or that his desire to play may not be the same as it used to be.
This may seem a bit brutal and unforgiving, especially for the goalkeeper. De Gea's final years at Manchester United rarely looked like a man enjoying football. Not many of his teammates showed that kind of form. Indeed, it's hard not to see how the situation of some of them – especially Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard – has been on the decline since leaving Old Trafford and wonder just how bad the experience has been for those players who have played for United in recent years.
De Gea has the right to take a break and use it to reimagine the future. In almost any other industry, no one with such a stable economy would rush to decide what they would do next. They want to recharge their batteries and rediscover the motivation to move forward to the next challenge.
But being on leave for a long time is rare in professional sports and very rare in professional football, where careers are shorter. Donovan interrupted his career at the age of 30, citing physical and mental exhaustion, but his five-month vacation coincided with the MLS offseason. Lehmann was keen to return to Arsenal after retiring in 2011, but he was 40 years old by then and his return was only to alleviate the Gunners' injury problems at the goalkeeper position at the time.
De Gea's abrupt interruption in his career was a fortuitous event, not his intention. Maybe time will prove that this is exactly what he needs. But he also faces the danger that it may be difficult to restart his career at the pace he is accustomed to after a long period of absence from the court. "New year, new challenges? "The longer he's away from the ring, the harder it will be to get back to the level he wants.