so I drove around the corner and signed for Manchester United

Few footballers would dare cross the divide between Manchester United and Manchester City.

There have been many people who have played football for both teams, but very few have ever made the direct switch between the two clubs – Denis Law and Carlos Tevez are the most notable for directly swapping red for sky blue – but for one young defender in 2012, that is exactly the brave decision he made.

It was deadline day. The summer transfer window was drawing to a close and Frederic Veseli decided it was time for a change, given he had no clear pathway to the first team on the blue side of Manchester.

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The promising defender had spent three-and-a-half successful years at City but he wanted to move to a club where there was a real opportunity to make it. He didn’t have to look far.

“These days, Manchester City are chasing titles and major trophies,” his former agent Adam Bouskouchi stated. “It is difficult for them to have faith in youth because they obviously feel experience is the best way for them to get where they want to go. But that attitude didn’t help Freddie, who just felt like he wasn’t progressing.

“Freddie spoke with several clubs, here and abroad. But he wants to be a top player in England, and when Sir Alex spoke to him, it made such an impression.

“He is a difficult man to say no to and his track record was enough for Freddie to feel he was making the right choice to join United.”

United had already tried once to sign the highly-rated defender, but like many other top teams in Europe, were beaten to his signature by the Blues. City were huge admirers of the talented teenager and struck a contract agreement with Veseli prior to his involvement with Switzerland at the Under-17 World Cup back in 2009. It proved to be a masterstroke.

The youngster would lead his country of birth to glory in the youth competition. He was a World Cup-winning captain at the age of 16, but any side looking to sign him up had already missed their chance.

“Freddie was my captain because he was a great personality, very professional mentally, with great technical qualities and he was a leader,” Swiss U17s manager Dany Ryser told The Manchester Evening News.

“To win the Under-17s World Cup was a great achievement because we may not have had all the best players in the tournament but we had the best team and Frederic epitomised that spirit.

“He was accepted as the leader of that side because it was all about the team and not himself. He had absolutely no attitude about being the star. For him, it was all about how the team performed.

“He was a very good captain who helped the side become champions.”

Switzerland won all seven of their matches on their way to glory, defeating Italy, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Japan, Colombia and Nigeria in the final in front of 60,000. After their triumphant victory, Veseli completed his move to Manchester, initially moving over with his father, though once his son had settled, he moved back to Switzerland.

City organised for him to move in with a local family, who just so happened to be massive fans of the club. They also looked after former striker Alex Nimely, taking the duo to watch the Blues whenever possible.

Despite some apprehension about his new environment, Veseli settled well on the football side of things and was soon promoted to the reserve side, while he often trained with the first team in order to aid his development. The youngster was progressing well, but thought he should be getting more opportunities given the work he was doing. He would have got one too, if not for an unfortunate injury.

“[Roberto] Mancini told me I would make my first-team debut in the final league game of the season and called my family,” Veseli told The Athletic. “But I tore my hamstring on the Tuesday. I was devastated.”

That setback deprived Veseli of his chance in the first team — one that he would never get again. City would at least give him a place on their pre-season tour to the United States, but it looked like paperwork would get in the way this time.

“I went to America pre-season with City, but that almost didn’t happen because my passport was not a biometric one. The reserve manager told me I’d have to stay with them, but Mancini told me they’d wait for me and not take another player.

“I went to the passport office and told them the whole story – they got me a new one in two days. I then went to the US embassy, which was complicated. It’s not easy there.”

Veseli missed out on the chartered flight and ended up heading economy to Chicago, a small price to pay for him if it was going to be his breakthrough moment in professional football.

It was a productive summer for him, but also one for City as well. Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy were the big signings, while their need for defensive reinforcements wasn’t addressed by promoting youngsters, but by the signing of Stefan Savic.

As he entered his final year at the club, Mancini made it clear he wanted to agree to fresh terms with the promising defender, while Veseli made it clear he was happy to stay around if a career pathway could be established, allowing him to leave on loan and get playing time elsewhere.

“We could never agree terms. Mancini would ask me all the time what was happening. I carried on playing. I played against United’s reserves who had Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager.

“United had a lot of first-teamers, we had reserves only and we drew 1-1. Fergie was there watching. I had a really good game.”

Veseli’s performance in front of the legendary United manager had certainly raised interest in his signature, but it wasn’t until a chance meeting at a pub that the wheels started to turn. Having gone to pick his girlfriend up from her local, the defender bumped into United assistant Rene Meulensteen, where conversation quickly turned to football, and in particular his situation at City.

The Blues were eager to establish a new identity in English football, starting with a rejuvenated youth system. Brian Marwood, then football administrator, made it clear that any youngster unhappy at the club was free to leave rather than potentially disrupt the balance.

It certainly piqued the interest of Meulensteen when he learned Veseli was free to leave, even though Mancini was eager to keep him.

“Mancini was disappointed and was always asking me to renew. I didn’t know what to say to him. My contract was up and City released me and signed a paper saying I could leave on a free.

“The next day, I drove to City’s training ground at Carrington to collect my stuff. I didn’t tell anybody what I was going to do next. I told the gaffer that I was leaving the club and he asked me where I was going. I told him: “United”. He couldn’t believe it, but he had to take training. He wished me good luck.”

Up until that point, United’s only transfer business had been the shock re-signing of Paul Scholes, which was marked with a Manchester derby appearance at the Etihad just hours after he signed a contract. Two weeks later, they would once again raid the other side of the city, formally announcing the signing of Veseli on a free transfer on deadline day.

At the time, Veseli said: “I am very happy and it is an honour to sign for Manchester United. I can’t wait to get started, to work hard and do everything I can to help the team. I am looking forward to showing everybody what I can do on the pitch.

“I am very thankful to Sir Alex Ferguson for bringing me to such a great club. Manchester United has a long history of younger players coming through and hopefully I can follow and do the same.”

That clear pathway for youth talent is what had influenced Veseli to switch clubs in the city, with the defender believing that City were overly focused on trying to win major trophies and establish their new stature rather than nurturing any young players.

Mancini’s eventual title triumph at the end of the season would vindicate their stance, though United were eager to make their noisy neighbours pay.

Here was one of the top talents in world football, who, despite stagnating in recent times, still represented huge potential and any success would be utter humiliation at the expense of their local neighbours. Ferguson never acknowledged the true nature of Veseli’s move to United, which began with that chat in a Wilmslow pub, though.

“It actually came about by chance, that,” Ferguson insisted when he spoke to MUTV. “A member of our scouting department came and told us City had released this young lad from Switzerland and they’d watched him playing a couple of years back.

“There was nothing to be lost. We thought we’d give him until the end of the season and see how he does. Hopefully he does well.”

United assigned Veseli extra training when he signed, telling the youngster he was not at the required fitness level to even train at the intensity they would demand from him.

“City had loads of big names and would become champions, but United were already champions. The energy was different, the aura. I fell in love with it straight away.”

Veseli continued to train with the United first team frequently but was not afforded as many opportunities at reserve level as he had been getting with City. In the time since his masterclass in front of Ferguson a year earlier, Solskjaer had left to manage Molde and been replaced by Warren Joyce.

It was a hugely talented squad, consisting of future first-team stars Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard, along with Michael Keane, Sean McGinty, Reece Brown, Scott Wootton and Tom Thorpe, giving tough competition at centre-back – it is perhaps little wonder things never exactly worked out.

Despite his limited game time, Veseli was once again named in a pre-season tour squad, this time the United one that headed to South Africa and China. But just like at City it never resulted in first-team opportunities.

The youngster returned to reserve action in a versatile role, playing predominantly as a right-back for the first half of the season, before switching to a defensive midfield role at the turn of the year. It was in this midfield role where he enjoyed his best run in the team, playing the entirety of matches most weeks, before another unfortunate injury cut short his season in April.

“I did my hamstring against Spurs reserves. Fergie had already told me I could leave as I hadn’t made the first team. He said I could stay for another year if I wanted, that he was happy to help me find another club; and that I could leave on a free.”

There was a host of interest from the Championship, with Leicester, Burnley, Barnsley and Ipswich all making offers to sign him, while Italian side Udinese were also keen.

The Ipswich chief scout confided in close friend Wayne Rooney about the United youngster and after some glowing feedback, a deal was quickly struck. Mick McCarthy’s side had won the race to sign a centre-back still highly regarded, despite a difficult five-year spell in Manchester.

Things never worked out at Portman Road, but Veseli did shine on loans at Bury and Port Vale, eventually signing permanently for the latter in January 2015, a deal he sorted himself, having sacked an inexperienced agent.

By the end of the season, he was on the move again. Having fallen out of love with the game, he headed back to Switzerland to study law at university before being offered a trial with Swiss side Lugano to revive his career.

Things went well, and soon they would get even better. Born in Switzerland to Albanian parents from Kosovo, Veseli accepted a call-up to the Albanian national side while at Lugano, eventually being named in their squad for Euro 2016.

“The best thing ever. I came on against France in Marseille. Wow. 50,000 Albanians were there, our first-ever appearance in the Euros. I was so proud. I knew the words to the national anthem. My parents were there, I was getting goosebumps for every game. We went back to Albania and were treated like kings. We were given a diplomatic passport, which means I don’t have to queue in airports.

“A year earlier I couldn’t get a team.”

But, just as before, the good times wouldn’t last long. Veseli became locked in a contract dispute with Lugano that saw them refuse to sell him and insist they had the right to trigger a contract extension that would see him earn far less money than he could get elsewhere.

He sought the advice of a lawyer and was finally freed from his contract, eventually signing for Serie A side Empoli before Lugano once again took legal action, this time suing the defender. Veseli was unable to play for two months before his name was finally cleared.

From there, he spent time on loan at Le Mans before returning to Italy with Salernitana, helping them earn promotion to Serie A. It was another incredible experience with a bittersweet ending, with Veseli only making nine appearances in the 2021/22 season due to injury and illness.

It is credit to him that he is looking forward to it once again. After a season with Benevento in Serie B he moved to Turkey with Fatih Karagümrük and he was part of the side that toppled giants Galatasaray in the quarter-final of the Turkish Cup on Thursday. Hopefully this one has the happy ending he deserves.

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