Marcus Rashford Religion

What religion is Marcus Rashford?

Marcus Rashford is a professional English footballer who is a Christian. In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Rashford said: “Yeah, definitely. My mum is very religious. It’s not that we practice it all the time, but sometimes the faith we have in God is shown by the people that we are. For me and my family, that’s definitely the case. If you could see our lives 15-20 years ago to where we are now, it’s impossible not to have faith in God and all he does for us.”

Marcus Rashford plays for both the England national team and La Liga club Barcelona. He is currently on loan from Premier League club Manchester United. Among his many career achievements, Rashford has won two FA Cups, two EFL Cups, the FA Community Shield, and the UEFA Europa League and was named as runner-up to Portugal’s Renato Sanches in the Golden Boy award for best European player under the age of 21.

Contracts, Salary & Career Earnings

Rashford signed his first professional contract with Manchester United in 2016, earning £20,000 per week. Over subsequent seasons, his wages rose steadily as his profile grew. In July 2023, he signed a new five-year contract with United running until June 2028, worth £300,000 per week, approximately £15.6 million per year, with some reports suggesting his full package, including bonuses, could reach £325,000 per week. Following a public falling out with manager Ruben Amorim at the end of 2024, Rashford joined Aston Villa on loan in January 2025, with Villa covering 75 percent of his £325,000 per week salary, potentially rising to 90 percent if he met performance-related targets. Villa also held an option to sign him permanently for £40 million at the end of the season. At Villa Park, he became the highest-paid player in the squad by a considerable distance, the only player earning over £10 million per year.

In the summer of 2025, Rashford joined Barcelona on loan, accepting a pay cut to approximately €14 million per year, around £166,000 per week, fully covered by the Catalan club, who also hold a purchase option set at €30 million. His total career earnings from playing contracts alone are estimated at well over £80 million, supplemented by endorsement deals with Nike, Burberry, and several other global brands.

Early life

Marcus Rashford was born on October 31, 1997, in Manchester, England. He has Kittitian ancestry through his mother, Melanie Maynard, and Jamaican ancestry through his DJ father, Robert Rashford. Rashford is the youngest of five children, with two older sisters, Claire and Chantelle, and two older brothers, Dane Rashford and Dwaine Maynard. His parents separated when he and his siblings were young, which made his mother work multiple jobs to raise the family. Rashford began playing football for Fletcher Moss Rangers, starting out as a goalkeeper. At the age of seven, he joined Manchester United’s academy, and he spent the next ten years in their development system.

DID YOU KNOW? One of the first things Rashford did upon signing his first professional contract at United was rent his mother a mansion in upmarket Hale, Cheshire, three miles from the council estate where they had grown up, fulfilling a promise he had made to her years earlier.

Manchester United

Rashford made his senior debut for Manchester United against Midtjylland in the UEFA Europa League in February 2016, scoring twice, and scored again three days later on his Premier League debut against Arsenal. He also scored on his EFL Cup, Champions League, and England debuts, a remarkable record of debut goals that set the tone for his early career. At 18 years and 141 days, he became the youngest scorer in the history of the Manchester derby, netting the only goal at the Etihad Stadium. During his time at United, he won two FA Cups, two EFL Cups, the UEFA Europa League, and the FA Community Shield. His finest individual season came in 2022–23, when he scored 30 goals across all competitions and was named the club’s Player of the Year. However, his form deteriorated sharply the following season, and after a public falling out with manager Ruben Amorim, who said he would rather pick his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach than Rashford, he was exiled from the squad for nearly two months before departing on loan.

Loan to Aston Villa

Rashford joined Aston Villa on loan in January 2025 until the end of the season, making 17 appearances and scoring four goals with six assists under Unai Emery before a hamstring injury curtailed his spell at the club. Villa held a £40 million option to sign him permanently at the end of the season but ultimately did not exercise it.

Loan to Barcelona

In July 2025, Rashford joined Barcelona on loan for the 2025–26 season, linking up with Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Robert Lewandowski in what became one of the most star-studded attacking lineups in Europe. In La Liga, he has recorded eight goals and seven assists across the season, winning the Trofeo Joan Gamper and the Supercopa de España with the club. On 10 May 2026, Rashford scored a spectacular knuckleball free kick in the 9th minute to help FC Barcelona defeat Real Madrid 2–0 at Camp Nou, securing the 2025/26 La Liga title.

International career

Rashford scored on his England debut in May 2016 against Australia, becoming the youngest English player to score in his first senior international match, and was named in the Euro 2016 squad by Roy Hodgson, making appearances off the bench against Wales and Iceland. He represented England at the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and at Euro 2020 and Euro 2024. At Euro 2020, he was one of three players to miss in England’s penalty shootout defeat to Italy in the final, an event followed by widespread racist abuse online. At the 2022 World Cup, he scored three goals, including two stunning free-kicks as England reached the quarter-finals before losing to France. He has earned 70 senior caps for England, scoring 18 goals, and has officially been named in England’s final 26-man squad by manager Thomas Tuchel for the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside forwards like Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, and Ollie Watkins.

Personal life, charity, and activism

Rashford has been in a relationship with his high school girlfriend, Lucia Loi, since May 2022. After announcing their separation in June 2023, they have since rekindled their relationship, reconciling in mid-2025, which saw Lucia moving to Spain to support Rashford following his football transfer to FC Barcelona.

Aside from football, Rashford’s charitable work is rooted directly in his own childhood experiences of hunger and food poverty in Wythenshawe. In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he launched a campaign urging the government to continue providing free school meal vouchers to vulnerable children during the summer holidays, a policy the government initially rejected before being forced into a U-turn after Rashford’s open letter to Members of Parliament went viral. His campaign led to a £120 million government commitment, ensuring 1.3 million children continued to receive meals. In October 2020, he launched the End Child Food Poverty parliamentary petition, which was signed by over 1.1 million people, forcing another debate in Parliament and resulting in a second government U-turn, a further funding package worth £400 million to support 1.7 million children over 12 months. That same month, he formed the Child Food Poverty Taskforce, a coalition of more than 15 organizations, including FareShare, calling on the government to implement recommendations from the National Food Strategy. By 2021, his partnership with FareShare had helped deliver over 21 million meals to those in need, raising more than £20 million in the process.

In 2021, Rashford launched a book club in partnership with Macmillan Children’s Books, donating 50,000 free books through children’s food charity Magic Breakfast to over 850 primary schools across England and Scotland. In recognition of his contributions, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in October 2021. He has also partnered with chef Tom Kerridge on the Full Time Meals campaign for FareShare and has spoken publicly about the racist abuse he received following Euro 2020.