The winger who once beat Lamine Yamal to a best player award is knocking on the door of the first team after 14 years at the academy

Ronaldinho popularised the piece of skill known as the 'Elastico' during his thrilling spell at Barcelona and, a few years later, a kid in Liverpool was making a name for himself for fooling defenders with the Brazilian's signature one-footed dribbling move, known in English as the 'flip flap'. The boy in question was three years old and was called Shea Lacey. By the age of four, he was playing with Manchester United.

Fourteen years on and Lacey is still at United and he now has a global legion of followers who regularly take to social media to gush about his dazzling moves for the Under-18s. And more recently he has been strutting his stuff at senior level. Lacey got his first taste of first team football on United's post-season tour of Asia at the back end of last season and last week he began pre-season training with Ruben Amorim's side.

He is now primed for more action as United prepare for their first friendly against Leeds and then head out on their pre-season tour of the United States to take part in the Premier League's Summer Series along with Everton, West Ham and Bournemouth.

It is a chance for Lacey to showcase his talents to an even wider audience and see if can repeat his daring acts of dribbling – which have brought him comparisons with Phil Foden, Eden Hazard and have even led to some calling him 'the Scouse Lionel Messi' – against Premier League opponents.

Lacey hails from a family of proud, match-going Liverpool fans who have played in the Reds' youth systems themselves but he has been converted to the United cause and is on the cusp of carving out his own story at Old Trafford…

Paddy LaceyWhere it all began

Lacey hails from a family steeped in football. His father attended the Liverpool academy during the era of Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish although never played for the senior team, while his eldest brother Paddy also came through the Reds' ranks before playing professionally for Accrington Stanley. His other brother Luis spent time at United's academy and has played in the Welsh top flight as well as in the English non-leagues. But Shea, born in 2007, stood out among his family.

"They had a goal in the back garden, a bit of astro turf, and you could just see straight away the things he could do with a football were beyond what me and me brother could do," older brother Paddy Lacey tells GOAL. "Shea could do the Ronaldinho flip flap when he was three years old. That was his little trick. In every game he’d go to the corner and flip flap and he would get away with it. He's well known for it where we live in Liverpool. Then he started doing it at Man United and everywhere."

Lacey trained with Liverpool, Everton, Blackburn and Man City but his father chose United because he felt the Red Devils was the best place for him to make the most of his dribbling ability. The family were also impressed with the way the club educated their youngsters.

Paddy explains: "Some coaches would interfere even at five and say 'Shea, don't, dribble all the time, just pass' and my dad was thinking, 'If you can dribble, get good at dribbling.' They didn’t half look after him. There’s loads of great things for the kids at United as you're coming through even at five. They make you look into every coach's eyes, you’ve got to shake every coach's hand. You've got to learn to talk and have personal development. Shea was a very shy kid and they brought him out of his shell." 

The longer Shea spent at United, the more he grew to love the club he played for and the less he cared for Liverpool. This was despite having a season ticket at Anfield and witnessing epic matches such as the 4-0 thrashing of Barcelona in 2019. Paddy adds: "United always looked after him, they always rolled out the red carpet for Shea. He was captain of every age group so it was a complex in his head: 'Am I Man United or am I Liverpool?' He chose the dark side!"

AdvertisementGetty The big break

Paddy knew his brother was doing great things at youth level because he would come back from tournaments where United had competed against the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus, and he would routinely come home clutching the Player of the Tournament trophy. One year he beat a young Lamine Yamal to the prize.

Paddy shared an image of him with all the trophies on social media but was urged by United to remove the picture to prevent him getting overhyped and too much pressure being put on him. Paddy obliged but soon enough his brother's performances spoke too loud to be ignored any more.

He scored his first goal for the U18s when he was aged 15: a stunning long range strike away to Wolves which flew into the top corner after he had dribbled across the pitch from the touchline. He scored an even better goal in the return fixture at home to Wolves towards the end of the season, weaving his way from the touchline through the defence and along the byline before dinking the ball over the goalkeeper.

Getty How it's going

Lacey notched five goals and five assists across 19 appearances in his first two seasons with the U18s, despite missing several months due to injury. He earned more fanfare online for two impressive goals in a 5-1 drubbing of Newcastle in 2023 and, just after his 17th birthday in April 2024, he signed a professional contract with the club.

The winger earned huge praise last season for a defiant cameo in a Premier League Cup match against Tottenham, coming on with his team trailing 4-0 and scoring two fine goals as they dragged their way back to 4-3. Lacey was then included in the squad for United's end-of-season tour of Asia, playing a combined 45 minutes across the two games against ASEAN All Stars and Hong Kong.

He was not shy about playing alongside household names and in one of the matches he was berated by Casemiro for continuing to dribble rather than pass to him. Bruno Fernandes could also be seen tapping him on a shoulder after buying a foul.

While he did not have a tangible impact in either game in terms of scoring or assisting, he produced no shortage of exciting dribbles and his fanbase saw it as confirmation that he was going to make it in the senior team. According to Paddy, though, Shea is largely unaffected by the hype around him.

"Shea’s dead humble, he doesn’t really care for things like that," he says. "It doesn’t bother him whatsoever. He’s used to it, he’s 18 now and there’s been a bit of a buzz from about 14 onwards from some of the clips of what he was doing and goals but he just wants to play for the first team, however long it takes."

Lacey is represented by Triple S Sports, the same talent management agency which looks after Wayne Rooney and Harry Maguire. And United's all-time top scorer is well aware of the buzz about Lacey, calling him up to tell him "You're doing brilliant, keep doing what you're doing."

Getty Biggest strengths

Lacey's dribbling ability is his most notable attribute while he packs a mean punch with his left foot. But for Paddy "it is all about his awareness". He recalls: "When Shea was 12 I was a professional. I was non-league for Chester, and I thought it'd be so easy to tackle a 12-year-old kid. But I quickly realised that it's so hard with his awareness. He knows how to buy a foul, he dribbles the right side so you can’t get the ball. His jinkiness, his twisting and turning even at 12, and I was a grown man, it's exceptional."

Paddy also cites his brother's movement and "the way he can change direction very quickly". His movement and awareness can be traced to his love for boxing. He only boxed for two years and made it to the national final in his age group, losing on a split decision. He had a good reason for losing, though: he had had his teeth removed the night before.

"He boxed for two seasons, he started to like it too much, so my dad said he’s stopping," says Paddy, who became a professional middleweight boxer in 2021 and has won all 10 of his fights. "He was obsessed with it. He was the most talented at boxing in the family, he was unbelievable. My pro coach said whenever Shea packs in football – be it 36 or 37 – he has to pick it up again because what he’s got can’t be taught."