FORMER MANCHESTER UNITED star DJ Buffonge could have been another star graduate from the club’s academy, like his pal Marcus Rashford.
However, the 26-year-old, now without a club, has lifted the lid on the realities of life when trying to forge a path into professional football, both the good and the bad.
DJ Buffonge has opened up on his four years in the Man Utd academy[/caption]
His time there included glowing review from top legends but also harsh reminders of how political football can be[/caption]
In an interview with The Athletic, Buffonge spoke about joining the Red Devils at the age of 16, having previously played for Arsenal and Fulham – the latter of which is where he says he had the most enjoyment from his career.
After five years with Fulham, the midfielder was lured to Man Utd by then Under-18s coach Paul McGuinness, who invited him and his dad out to lunch and gave a glowing review of Buffonge’s skillset and potential.
On trial ahead of the 2015/16 campaign, he also earned the seal of approval from Class of 92′ legends Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, then assistant to manager Louis van Gaal and head of academy respectively.
Buffonge explains how the pair gave him some really “encouraging” advice as they broke down what they did and didn’t like about his game.
His start to Man Utd academy life under McGuinness and later Kieran McKenna was generally happy, despite a torn abductor which he suffered while making a pass to Rashford.
However, after McKenna promoted Buffonge to the Under-23 side —following the now-Ipswich boss telling him under-18s football was “too easy” for him — more problems began to surface.
Despite then boss, Warren Joyce, having great success by winning the youth league title in six out of eight years he was the manager, Buffonge described the set-up as “like an army camp”.
Buffonge explains that he didn’t get much of a look-in for actual minutes behind the likes of Scott McTominay – then playing as a striker – because it was more focused on “if you can run up and down in training”.
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But prior to Joyce leaving to take over at Wigan, Buffonge revealed how the coach had told him he would not be making his debut under Jose Mourinho until the now 17-year-old cut his hair – a comment Joyce does not recall making but admits was in his coaching style.
He said: “Warren Joyce would make comments like, ‘I’m gonna tell Mourinho you’re not gonna make your debut with him until you cut your hair.’ I was just thinking, ‘I don’t understand.
“They’re joking around, but I really want to play. I don’t see the correlation between my hair and me playing.’ In football, there’s a lot of banter… but even if it was said as banter, it stuck with me because when you’re fighting for your place, everything feels like a signal.
“I’m a young kid trying to get minutes, and I’m asking for guidance, and if you’re guiding me to cut my hair, that doesn’t really make sense… I did cut it a couple of months later — not fully off — but nothing changed from that point.”
Joyce does not recall making the comment, but admits his style of coaching means it was the sort of thing he might have said.
Later on, Buffonge was fined a week’s wages for getting a tattoo on his chest that read: “I was put on this earth to achieve my greatest self, to live out my purpose and to do it courageously.”
That was despite a rule at the time saying no youth player was allowed to get tattoos.
However, his eventual exit from the club was set in motion under Joyce’s replacement, Ricky Sbragia in August 2018.
Buffonge explained how, in the third game of the season against Southampton, he had won a penalty and, in the heat of the moment, took it ahead of assigned taker Angel Gomes and later caught him a huge “b*********” for his trouble – despite Gomes being okay with it on the pitch.
The next game Buffonge was in the stands, which then became a more permanent feature for him after Sbragia made choices in collaboration with senior club staff to drop him.
Buffonge said: “That was the moment I started feeling some decisions weren’t even about football anymore — it felt political. No one could tell me directly what the issue was.”
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Other than the sporadic five-minute cameos, Buffonge often saw his game limited.
Yet later on, when having lunch, he was chatted to by first-team boss Mourinho – who had known Buffonge from his days at Fulham with the Portuguese’s own son playing for the Cottagers at the same time.
Buffonge said: “He came over and said, ‘DJ, I want to know why you’ve not been playing recently. The last game you were doing good. Are you not fit? What’s the problem?’. And I told him, ‘I honestly don’t know.’
“Mourinho said, ‘OK, now you’re going to come train with us, and I’m gonna tell you the reason why I think you don’t play.’ I ended up training with them most of the time.
“He couldn’t give me a reason why I wasn’t playing. He said, ‘If I could say one thing – never walk (when on the pitch)’.”
Buffonge recalls how in his first training session with the senior team at the age of 17 or 18 he put the ball through Phil Jones’ legs, which sent everyone crazy despite some of the defender’s “foul language”.
The midfielder spoke about the rewards of training with top-class players such as Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, though he admits he remained starved of development time through minutes.
He remained training with the senior side when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Mourinho in December 2018, but Buffonge admits he knew there was no way back at the club before he went to Bolton on loan, where he suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury.
Buffonge left Man Utd – who have actively tried caring for player welfare stars in recent years – in 2019 at the age of 20, joining Italian second-tier side Spezia.
Spells with three Dutch teams would follow, but ultimately, after two surgeries in as many years, he decided to call it a day on professional football.
He is now focused on creating a platform to “coach young men on mindset, masculinity, purpose and motivation,” using the lessons he learned at Man Utd and beyond.
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