Dean Henderson targeting No1 spot for Manchester United and England after international call

Henderson wants to replace De Gea at Old Trafford and fight off competition from Pickford and Pope.
Manchester United via Getty Imag

Dean Henderson has set his sights on becoming the No1 goalkeeper for England and Manchester United.

The 23-year-old has spent the past two seasons on loan at Sheffield United and he has excelled at Bramall Lane, first in the Championship and then in the Premier League.

Henderson has since been recalled by Manchester United for the new season and he has signed a five-year contract too.

The goalkeeper is now expected to challenge with David de Gea to become the first choice at Old Trafford.

Henderson has also been called up by England too ahead of Nations League matches with Iceland and Denmark this month and he has aspirations to be the Three Lions' No1.

In Pictures | New England kit, Nike 2020 collection

1/14

“Obviously I want to play for England and I want to play for Manchester United,” said Henderson.

“And so I’m just going to keep working hard every single day, overcoming my little challenges, my little goals and I’m sure one day I'll get to where I want to be.

“Listen, for me with Man United, David de Gea has obviously been a great goalkeeper first and foremost for many years. He’s been phenomenal and that’s something I aspire to be, to have a career like him at the club.

“So I’ll be going back in first day of the pre-season working my socks off to get in that starting line-up, because it’s something I’ve always wanted.

“I’m so close now so I’m not going to give up now. I’m going to put the pressure on.

“I respect David. He’s been a phenomenal servant for the football club and if not one of the best in the recent years.

“It’s down to me. I know what challenges are going to be ahead. I’m well up for it.”

On battling Jordan Pickford and Nick Pope to be England’s No1, Henderson added: “I’ve got two very good goalkeepers here with me and we’re all challenging for the No1 shirt.

“And it’s obviously something that I aspire to be, so I’m working hard every single day to do what I can do to be classed as Gareth’s No1. But I know I’ve got to get past two very good goalkeepers.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in