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At a little table in the Brasserie Le Negresco, opposite Stade Velodrome, a kid is watching footage of an Olympique de Marseille game on his phone while his parents sip at their beers. The kid is wearing a Marseille shirt. ‘Greenwood’ is written on the back of it.
At the foot of the grand flight of steps that lead up to the stadium from Boulevard Michelet, a man with a microphone and no shirt is orchestrating pre-match chants denigrating Paris Saint-Germain. A small crowd of perhaps 20 supporters has gathered. I count six of them wearing Greenwood shirts.
In the club shop, there is a line of shirts near the entrance where supporters can sit and have their photos taken in front of their hero’s jersey. Leonardo Balerdi’s jersey is far left, Facundo Medina next, then Geronimo Rulli and then Greenwood.
A queue of children, waiting to have their picture taken by their parents, grinning broadly, making funny gestures for the camera, excited for the Ligue 1 match against Brest that will kick off in an hour or so, has built in front of one of the shirts: Greenwood’s.
When the game begins in front of a huge, passionate, baying crowd of more than 66,000 fans, it is soon evident that Greenwood is the best player on the pitch. His technical ability, more than anything, makes him stand out.
He still has the touch and the awareness and the explosive bursts of pace and the power in both feet that made him a phenomenon when he burst into the Manchester United team at the age of 17 in March 2019. No player – not Wayne Rooney, nor Marcus Rashford, nor Cristiano Ronaldo – has scored more goals for United as a teenager than Greenwood.
Mason Greenwood’s career was changed forever after he was accused of rape and assault three years ago
He was exiled from England but is now thriving on the pitch at French giants Marseille, and was the joint-top scorer in France last season
And he has an army of fans in the French city who are turning a blind eye to the rape and assault accusations made against him
Midway through the first half against Brest, Greenwood, who starts on the right of a three-man Marseille forward-line that also features former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, pushes the ball nonchalantly through the legs of Brest striker Ludovic Ajorque and the crowd goes wild, rising to their feet as one and punching the air.
Just after half an hour, with Marseille already a goal up from a free-kick by England midfielder Angel Gomes, they win a penalty and Greenwood steps up to take it. The goalkeeper dives to his left and Greenwood rolls it to his right.
Marseille win the game 3-0 and the victory takes them, for a short time, to the top of Ligue 1. Greenwood’s goal is his eighth of the season and it makes him second in the list of leading scorers in French football.
Last season, his first in France, Greenwood finished joint-top of the scoring charts alongside PSG’s Ousmane Dembele, who won the Ballon d’Or. It is quite some company that England’s great lost talent is keeping.
There is no disguising it: the striker who played his last game for Manchester United as a 20-year-old prodigy in January 2022 and was run out of English football as a pariah after being charged with attempted rape is a hero again, in France at least.
It was thought earlier this year that he was about to change nationality and accept an invitation to play for Jamaica, who are managed by former United coach Steve McClaren and are well-placed to qualify for next year’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
But Greenwood, 24, did not turn up for a Jamaica training camp he had been expected to attend and at Marseille, they say it is because the striker, who is an outcast and an exile from the English game, has become obsessed by an impossible dream. Greenwood still believes he can play for England again.
It is almost four years ago now that Greenwood was arrested on suspicion of rape and assault after police became aware of graphic images and videos circulating online and was suspended from training and matches by United.
Greenwood with his Marseille boss, former Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi, in May
The forward (pictured here with his then team-mate Marcus Rashford) played his last game for Manchester United in January 2022
Greenwood is eligible to play for Jamaica but is said to have become obsessed with the impossible dream of playing for England again
In October of that year, Greenwood was charged with attempted rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and controlling and coercive behavior. He denied all the charges and in February 2023, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that the charges had been dropped after key witnesses withdrew and ‘new material came to light’.
United procrastinated about how to proceed. When news was leaked that they were considering bringing Greenwood back into the fold under then manager Erik ten Hag, the public outcry was such that they abandoned that plan and accepted, reluctantly, that he would never play for them again.
Greenwood spent a year on loan at Getafe in Spain before Marseille paid United £27.5 million for him at the start of last season. Estimates suggest that Greenwood is now worth twice that and it has been reported that Barcelona and AC Milan are among the European giants weighing up whether to make a move for him at the end of the season.
But the more Greenwood’s story turns into a tale of success and rehabilitation on the pitch, the more it becomes trapped in football’s confused morality.
Even if United accept that Greenwood will never play for them again, they certainly do not accept that they will never make money out of him again. Whenever it is that he moves to a new club, United will profit handsomely from a sell-on free they wrote into his Marseille deal. It is said they will get half of any profit Marseille make on the transfer.
In Marseille, all the supporters and locals I spoke to said that Greenwood’s past misdeeds were no longer an issue for them. One taxi driver said that Greenwood had made a ‘gross error‘but that he had paid for it and that now he should be allowed to move on.
Perceptions of Greenwood’s case are also different in France because the French media openly discuss the details of the charges that were made against him and the reason why the case collapsed. In the UK, the media is prevented from discussing those details by reporting restrictions designed to protect victims.
On his one appearance for the Three Lions’ senior team, in September 2020. His debut was tainted by revelations that he and Phil Foden breached Iceland’s Covid regulations
Greenwood races away from Atalanta defender Honest Ahanor in the Champions League clash between the sides last week
Greenwood’s solitary senior appearance for England came against Iceland in a Nations League tie in Reykjavik in September 2020 but his debut was tainted by revelations that he and Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden had breached the country’s Covid quarantine regulations by inviting women back to their hotel room.
They were both fined 250,000 Icelandic krona (£1,360) by local authorities and sent home before England’s next game against Denmark. Greenwood has never played for England again and despite his dream of rekindling his career with Thomas Tuchel’s side, it is hard to see that dream ever materializing.
The Football Association and Tuchel stick steadfastly to the simple line that Greenwood is a player who ‘is not under consideration’ for a recall to the England squad, despite his form in France. The chances of that changing before the World Cup sit somewhere between vanishingly slim and zero.
Greenwood is a problem England do not need. The charges against him may have been dropped but the images from that online footage remain burned into the public mind. Any attempt to rehabilitate him in the England set-up would be met by protests and a deluge of criticism.
Greenwood has not been convicted of a crime, but those images are indelible. The FA are keenly aware that at a time when violence against women is an issue that shames our society, welcoming Greenwood back to the national team would send out a message many would find unpalatable.
It is hard to see, in fact, how Greenwood could ever play for an English club again, let alone the national team. He might be coveted by Barcelona but it is unlikely that Arsenal or Chelsea or Liverpool would ever even consider buying him because of the backlash they would endure.
There are some parallels between Greenwood’s case and that of David Goodwillie, a former Scotland striker, who was ruled to be a rapist and ordered to pay damages in a civil case in Scotland in 2017. He never faced a criminal trial over the rape accusation after prosecutors said there was not enough evidence.
After the case, Goodwillie played successfully for Clyde and was bought by Raith Rovers in January 2022 for an undisclosed fee. The signing was met by a bitter backlash from supporters and the public. Some started referring to the club as ‘Rape Rovers’.
Greenwood signs his United contract with then boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in February 2021. It is said United will get half of any profit Marseille make on eventually selling Greenwood
Greenwood is a forgotten man in this country. He is too toxic for Thomas Tuchel and the FA and for English football.
Two Raith Rovers directors resigned following the signing, and the author Val McDermid withdrew her sponsorship of the Championship club. Raith’s women’s team severed links with the club and formed a new breakaway side. Eight months later, Goodwillie was released from his contract at Raith without ever having played a game.
And so Greenwood plays on in exile. On Thursday night, Foden produced a bravura cameo as a false nine when Tuchel brought him on as a substitute for Harry Kane in the World Cup qualifier against Serbia at Wembley.
It is a role that would be perfect for Greenwood, too, but Foden is one of England’s golden boys now and Greenwood is a forgotten man. He is too toxic for Tuchel and the FA and for English football.
He can reject the chance to play for Jamaica if he wishes but the reality is Jamaica represents his only chance of ever playing in a World Cup. England remains out of reach. It remains Mason Greenwood’s impossible dream.
