Kobbie Mainoo signed a new five-year contract with Manchester United this week and used the moment to underline the influence of Casemiro, saying the veteran midfielder tells the squad before every match: "Before every game, when we go around and shake everyone's hand while we're on the pitch, Casemiro will say, 'let's have fun. Let's enjoy football'. You know, that's what it is, isn't it?"
The detail matters because Casemiro, a 34-year-old who scored nine goals in the 2023/2024 season, is set to leave United this summer, according to the source article. Mainoo's new deal locks the 20-year-old midfielder to the club for half a decade just as United look set to return to the Champions League.
Mainoo spoke about learning from the experienced figures around him, naming Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes specifically. "It's been huge for me because I've learned so much from Casemiro," he said. "Him and Bruno, to be fair. Mostly in training, like when I was 16 or 17, I'd come up to train, and I was only training with the first team at that time, I wasn't playing games – like training was my games."
He said those training sessions taught him to manage intensity with composure. "I'd watch them and the pace of training was so high. I'd just think, how are they so calm in that? And like, what are they doing? I'd go home and I'd think about it a lot, and I'd try and implement things. But I'm still learning now, to this day." Mainoo added that even in victory the joy of the sport is central: "You have fun and you love to win, but ultimately, I'd be playing the game for free, I'd be playing in the back garden if I wasn't playing it here."
Casemiro's public backing has been equally clear. The midfielder said of Mainoo: "Kobbie is the present and the future. I think that he is one of the best No.8s and can be for that for the next 12 years. He is a player I really like." He added: "He always wants the ball. It is true that football can’t change your mentality, but Kobbie demonstrated that he hasn’t changed his focus once. He has to continue focusing like he is now and continue playing the important role he is now. But what a player he is, he is a great player."
Casemiro pointed to Mainoo's big-game temperament as evidence: "He has demonstrated this, in the Euros final with England, he has demonstrated it in finals, he scored in the FA Cup [in the 2024 final win over Manchester City]. He is the present and the future." Those endorsements carry weight inside the dressing room and with supporters.
Context sharpens the story: Mainoo broke permanently into the first team during the 2023/2024 campaign after being reinstated to the starting XI by Michael Carrick, and he scored in the 2024 FA Cup final. For a player who once spent seasons training with the first team at 16 or 17 rather than playing competitive fixtures, the five-year contract is confirmation of fast-tracked development.
The tension is immediate. Casemiro is set to depart this summer, and the club faces the practical task of finding Mainoo a midfield partner capable of matching what the Brazilian brought. The source says United are expected to sign a Casemiro replacement this summer, and there is uncertainty surrounding Manuel Ugarte's future, leaving the composition of next season's midfield incomplete even as a Champions League return looms.
Mainoo leaves the announcement with both a renewed commitment and a clear challenge: absorb what leaders like Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes have taught him and become the player those men predict. For a teenager who treated training as his games, that process has already begun; now, with a five-year deal signed, the young midfielder must turn lessons watched in Carrick-era sessions into consistent performance at the highest level.
