"A new year, a new challenge", David De Gea wrote on Instagram on January 8, and at the start of the campaign, you would briefly imagine whether the talented goalkeeper of a generation has finally found a new club, six months after he left Manchester United.
But no, this new challenge has to do with the esports franchise he owns. Obviously related to the upcoming League of Legends. Or maybe Counter-Strike 2. Various*** anonymously revealed to The Athletic that if you're interested in this kind of thing, this could be quite a big deal for you.
There's nothing wrong with that. Professional athletes have interests and business ventures outside of their careers, sometimes with a very narrow focus. There's nothing wrong with staying away from professional sports for a while if professional sports make you tired or worse.
But when he left United at the end of the season and the club cancelled the signing of Andre Onana from Inter Milan as his replacement, De Gea said it was "the right time to start a new challenge and challenge yourself again in a new environment". Not playing football all season was clearly not his original intention.
He had less than two months left to find a club before the summer transfer window closed, which was far from ideal for a goalkeeper accustomed to playing at the top level, but the options came and went and didn't really appeal to him. In addition to the inevitable interest from Saudi Arabia, there was also the possibility of replacing Onana at Inter, but with De Haia not very interested in the prospect, the Italian club ended up signing Bayern Munich's Ian Sommer.
As a free agent, De Gea could still sign for a new club after the summer transfer window closes, but nothing appeals to him. Rumours of Newcastle United as a replacement for the injured Nick Pope, but there has been little substantial progress. Then, after the January transfer window opened, Saudi Pro League club Al Shabab and in the final week before the deadline, there were more serious discussions with Nottingham Forest. Again, neither option has made much progress.
Interestingly, Forest's contact was an attempt by an intermediary to convince De Gea to accept the benefits of this transfer, telling him that a short-term contract with a Premier League club provided the perfect 'shop window' for him to showcase his talent there to the world of football and attract more high-profile transfer clubs. But De Gea was unmoved.
So, while there will be more options to choose from, De Gea has not found a new club – or a new challenge – that would convince him that it is time to return to the game and 'challenge' himself in a 'new environment'.
He has the right to think that there must be other jobs that are more attractive than Forest and Shabab. For one of United's No.1 goalkeepers, both clubs are individuals and teams two points above the Premier League's relegation zone, and the threat of points deductions looks like a huge drop. During his 12-year career at Manchester United, he won the club's Player of the Year award four times, was voted in the Premier League Team of the Season five times by his team-mates, and even last season.
He won the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper in the Premier League, but his movements have begun to slip as his career at Old Trafford has evolved towards an unsatisfactory ending.
But the longer he stays away, the harder it becomes to see him return to the role he wants – the number one goalkeeper for a top club with the ability to compete for important awards – and salary.
It's a complicated situation. Over the past decade, top clubs have increasingly valued goalkeepers being able to expertly attack from the back. De Gea was an extraordinary goalkeeper at his best in Manchester, but was later seen as a passive goalkeeper rather than an aggressive type like Alisson, Ederson or Manuel Neuer – or Onana.
When Arsenal and Chelsea wanted new goalkeepers last August, they opted for David Raya and Robert Sanchez. When Thibaut Courtois suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last August, Real Madrid signed Chelsea's Kepa Arrizabaga on loan. Four of the top 10 richest clubs in world football, including Manchester United, are considering signing a goalkeeper who is more suited to possession rather than a free transfer.
In a way, this is similar to the situation Cristiano Ronaldo faced after he decided to leave Manchester United in the summer of 2022. The range of European clubs that can afford his salary is very limited. Of these clubs, it's hard to imagine any of them being stylistically suited to an ageing Ronaldo, so he opted to join Saudi Arabia's Al Nassar and become the biggest fish among players who are far smaller in terms of talent and status.
At some point, De Gea may have to lower his target. Maybe not as low as Forest or Shabab, but maybe to something beyond the club he originally envisioned. Or maybe he will attract European football's heavyweight clubs as the number two goalkeeper and give himself the opportunity to become the number one goalkeeper when he gets the chance.
But in the last few weeks, he has been offered that in order to put himself in the window, he would benefit from signing a short-term contract with Forest. His reaction was either that his self-confidence was as high as ever, or that his desire to play football might not be what it used to be.
This can be a lonely, cruel, and unforgiving industry for goalkeepers. De Gea's final years in Manchester rarely looked like a man who enjoyed football. The same goes for many of his teammates. Indeed, it's hard not to look at the players who have continued to decline since leaving Old Trafford, especially Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard, and then imagine just how corrosive the Manchester United experience can have been in recent years.
De Gea has the right to rest and make the most of it. In almost any other industry, a person who is so financially safe will be urged to take a break for as long as possible, to recharge, to rediscover the energy and motivation for the next challenge, whatever it may be.
But in professional sports, vacations are rare, and even more so at the high levels of professional football, where careers are short-lived. At the age of 30, Donovan took a break from what he called mental and physical fatigue, but his five-month break coincided with the MLS offseason. Jens Lehmann was re-signed with Arsenal in 2011, but by then he was 40 years old and had only played once in an official tournament. De Gea's career was interrupted by accident rather than by design. At some point in the future, this may prove to be what he needs. But there is also a danger that once out of this rhythm, it can become very difficult to return to this rhythm again, and he is used to it. "New year, new challenges"? The longer he is gone, the more difficult it will become to return to the level he desires. **10,000 Fans Incentive Plan