Manuel Ugarte: The Fighter

A versatile youngster accustomed to playing various roles in the youth ranks of Montevideo club Fenix, Ugarte initially raised eyebrows and broke records in Uruguay when he was handed his senior debut in a 4-1 win over Danubio aged just 15, making him the country’s youngest top-flight debutant of the 21st century. Though he was carefully dipped back into action over the coming campaigns, it was under the management of former La Celeste international Juan Ramon Carrasco that Ugarte began hastily refining his game as an archetypal, ball-winning midfielder.

“Physically he was superb and was always excellent at recovering possession,” Carrasco said. “I gave him the freedom to play centrally so he could learn how to take ownership of that area.”

Competition for places at club and international level meant that Manuel had to keep improving in order to keep racking up senior minutes. Nevertheless, he always retained a sense of collective fortunes; when he missed the cut for Uruguay’s squad for the 2019 Under-20s World Cup in Poland, he travelled separately to the airport to wish his team-mates well on their trip.

That character hastened his installation as Fenix captain and, in late 2020, having caught the eye in the Copa Sudamericana and as Fenix captain, the 19-year-old was picked up by Famalicao, a mid-table side in Portugal’s Primeira Liga.

“Famalicao must have a superb scouting network,” says Portuguese football writer Tom Kundert, “because this is what they do: they pick up really talented, quite unknown players and develop them very well. It’s quite hard to shine there because they don’t have European football, so the normal career path for those who join them is to do as well as possible for Famalicao and then be bought by one of the bigger clubs in Portugal. That’s exactly what Ugarte did.

“He did very well at Famalicao. Even though he was very young, straight away he looked a really good player. He was very raw, his style of play was maybe a little bit agricultural at times – he’s a very aggressive player – but at Famalicao, he really refined his game very quickly and became an all-action midfielder.”

It was at this stage that Ugarte’s progress went into overdrive. Just eight months after arriving in Portugal, he was snapped up by Sporting Lisbon, who were resurgent under the new management of Ruben Amorim, and the midfielder picked up the first winner’s medal of his career within six months, lifting the Portuguese League Cup. While initially competing for involvement with Joao Palhinha and Matheus Nunes, Manuel soon began to impose himself on Amorim’s setup.

“The thing which has really impressed me is that he’s a really good learner,” says Kundert. “It’s been very visible in his career so far. He was an interesting player to start with, but then he just got better and better while he was at Famalicao, then Sporting. He was only at both clubs for a short space of time but really improved so much at each. He’s someone who really works hard on his game and always tries to get better.

“He really became a complete no.6 at Sporting. He’s not going to be playing the same kind of passes as Bruno Fernandes, but he’ll win the ball a lot and give really good protection in front of the defence. He is good technically, a good passer, but he keeps it simple, keeps the ball rolling. He’s one of those players who makes those around him better, rather than really standing out himself. He made himself really popular straight away at Sporting because he was a 100 per cent player from day one. It’s a cliché, but the South American defensive players look like they’re willing to die on the field for their team, and he’s absolutely that sort of player. He’ll give everything in every game.”

That commitment to the cause soon prompted the next step in Manuel’s career, as perennial Ligue 1 winners PSG came calling in the summer of 2023. Although he was a star turn in the opening months of the campaign, so total was the dominance of Luis Enrique’s team that the Spaniard soon decided that his side didn’t need a ferocious, ball-winning presence in central midfield. PSG ended the campaign with a domestic treble and, even though he had started fewer games as the season progressed, Ugarte still featured towards the very top of charts for ball recoveries and tackles across Europe’s top-five leagues during his solitary season in France.

Over at Old Trafford, with United conceding a high number of chances during the 2023/24 campaign, the need to shore up such metrics was glaring. “I think he’s almost a perfect fit,” says Kundert. “He’s the kind of player United have been crying out for in midfield. I think he should give United fans a lot of hope and I’m certain they’ll love him. He’s the kind of player fans take to straight away.”

The feeling was more than mutual even before Manuel’s on-pitch presentation to United supporters at the start of September. Fronted with the prospect of getting out on the pitch to represent the Reds, the Uruguayan said: “I'm really excited. I've never seen anything like it before, these United fans, because, since the news first came out, they've been sending me messages. I've seen them everywhere!

“I also spoke a lot with Facu Pellistri [who left United to join Panathinaikos this summer] and he told me all about everything: the atmosphere that's generated, the matchday atmosphere that builds up at Old Trafford is incredible. I think that the supporters, the real fans, the die-hard United fans, deserve the club to be winning trophies and that's what we're hoping to achieve.”

Ugarte’s assimilation into that process has not been fast-tracked. Initially handed a watching brief after his arrival, September’s international break further delayed his opportunities of action with his new club. Late cameos in the win at Southampton and goalless draw at Crystal Palace bookended the resounding Carabao Cup victory over League One’s Barnsley, giving the newcomer three differing experiences of what English football has to offer.

“He’s a player very short in [training] sessions, now he has a start in him,” said Ten Hag, ahead of the trip to Selhurst Park. “At Southampton, he came in as a sub. He’s in the process that he has come into the club. He has to come into the team and know what is the game, what are the principles, what are the rules, know his team-mates and, especially, know with his profile what he can contribute for his team. We are in that process and that will take some time, but it will come, it will come in a natural way. And you can already see when he is fulfilling the process he will really be a very good player for us.”

Complexities and intangibles are few and far between when assessing what Ugarte brings to Ten Hag’s mix. At six feet tall, with a wiry physique, sizeable engine and relentless thirst for winning possession, Ugarte ticks all the hallmarks of a battle-scarred South American defensive midfielder. Now a fixture in Uruguay’s engine room, he begins his maiden Reds campaign fresh from being named as his country’s sole representative in the Team of the Tournament at the recent Copa America. There, his unyielding desire shone through whenever he was on the field; an innate characteristic he attributes to his DNA.

“It's about fighting for every ball like it was your very last,” he explained. “It's something totally natural that you find in Uruguayan players and it's down to lots of things: the background and context we've played in and because there are so few of us. Uruguay is a tiny country, but it's won and achieved a lot. It produces good players and this is also down to that 'garra charrúa’, which means basically giving everything you've got, no matter what the situation. Now I'm looking forward to doing it right here.”

This article was first published in United Review, our official matchday programme, in September 2024, after Ugarte's Old Trafford debut against Barnsley.