That goal against Aston Villa (and the lesser-remembered winner at Sunderland a week later) must seem like a long, long time ago for former Man United striker Federico Macheda.
The former Italy u21 star was once hailed by Alex Ferguson as the best natural finisher in a United squad containing Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov, but his career at Old Trafford skidded off the tracks due to a series of injuries and subsequently poor form.
Spells at Sampdoria, QPR, Stuttgart, Doncaster, Birmingham, Cardiff and Nottingham Forest followed. His two-season, 33-game stint in Wales yielded just six goals after he netted 10 times in 18 games for Birmingham in 2013/2014, and on return from loan at Forest earlier this year, he was transfer listed and eventually had his contract terminated.
It's been sad to witness the decline of a player who seemed to offer so much promise, but his career has taken a further turn for the worse in recent days according to Sportitalia.
Macheda has now begun training with Serie B outfit Bari in his native Italy, having been taken in on trial by manager Stefano Colantuono with no guarantees as to his joining the club on a permanent basis. Should he impress, he may be registered as a Bari player in January. But should he flatter to deceive, he'll be left without a club once more and in all likelihood forced to look at a lower level of football than Serie B if he is to resuscitate his waning career.
It's a far cry from scoring a stoppage time winner in front of 76,000 berserk fans and causing Martin Tyler to have 'an incident', and it's hard to believe that a player so highly regarded at Old Trafford as recently as three to four seasons ago could be washed up at the age of 25 if this trial doesn't go according to plan. Macheda has scored 27 goals in 145 appearances in senior football.
