Donny van de Beek scored his first goal in more than two years as new club Girona lost 2-3 to Feyenoord in the Champions League in the early morning of October 3 (Vietnam time).
The former Manchester United player scored his first goal since August 2022.
Van de Beek, 27, has struggled to settle at United since his £40m move from Ajax in 2020.
The Dutchman has been loaned out to Man United twice as he struggled for game time. His most recent goal came against Arsenal in August 2022 during his loan spell at Everton.
But that all changed this summer, when he finally secured a permanent move away from Old Trafford and joined Girona in Spain.
Moving to a new home seems to be a liberation for Van de Beek, allowing the midfielder to gradually return to form. The goal has returned to him after 26 months.
Van de Beek will be hoping that he makes the right move to revive his career after a horrendous spell at the Theatre of Dreams.
After leaving Ajax for Man United, Van de Beek only had 23 starting matches in 4 years for the "Red Devils".
While loan spells at Everton and Eintracht Frankfurt were also in vain, with only 5 and 4 appearances respectively.
Van de Beek's goal-scoring exploits after cutting ties with United are not unique. Other players - most recently Mason Greenwood (sold permanently to Marseille), Jadon Sancho (loaned to Chelsea) - have found success by leaving.
It should be added that Van de Beek's goal was scored in the Champions League, while Man United are currently playing in the Europa League...
For Van de Beek, it seemed that the appointment of coach Erik ten Hag in 2022 would help him revive, because after all, the two teachers and students had successfully cooperated at Ajax.
In the Netherlands, the two teachers and students worked together for 3 seasons (from 2017 to 2020) and that was also the time when Van de Beek played the most (136 matches) and scored the most goals (40) in his career up to this point.
However, when reuniting at Old Trafford, Ten Hag almost did not use the player that Man United had to compete fiercely with Real Madrid to win his signature.
And with Van de Beek's story, there will be concerns somewhere for Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt - 2 new players of Man United who worked with Ten Hag at Ajax, especially when the Dutch coach is very close to being fired.
As Van de Beek scores in a new chapter of his career, United's pain is not just that he has found himself again but that he has scored in a Girona shirt.
The club is considered the “backyard of Manchester City”, when City Football Group (CFG), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi United Group, bought 44.3% ownership in Girona. Another 44.3% is held by Girona Football Group, headed by Pere Guardiola - Pep Guardiola's brother.
