When Manchester United beat their nearest rivals Manchester City last December, the bragging rights were definitely with the red half of the city, but one United player couldn’t keep the tears from falling in the aftermath of the derby victory.
Daniel James was signed from Swansea City in June 2019, and has become an integral member of the first-team squad.
Unfortunately, the 22-year-old’s father, Kevan, died just three weeks before his son’s move to Old Trafford, and it was directly after the win over City that the emotion got the better of the youngster.
“I rang my missus and mum afterwards — I was in the toilet crying my eyes out because I was so happy,” James told NBC Sports and cited by the Daily Star.
“But when you’re that happy you want to be able to share it with the people you love. I couldn’t share that with my dad. He would have been there and I wanted to share it with him and I couldn’t. That was the hardest thing for me.”
As the Premier League get ready to return and hopefully see the final 10 games of the season pass off without incident, James will, along with his colleagues, be looking to continue the good form that they found themselves in before the season was curtailed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
With European places still at stake, an assault on the final Champions League position isn’t beyond Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, and that would surely be the best ending to a tumultuous year for Daniel James.