When Casemiro won his first Champions League title, Kobbie Mainoo was a nine-year-old pupil at Cheadle Catholic Junior School who had just embarked on his tentative first steps to a career in football.
Mainoo joined Manchester United that year, but back then making it into the first team at Old Trafford was a pipe dream, a fantasy that became reality for barely a handful of boys. But the prodigious midfielder has always had the game and the character to make an impression and by his teenage years, he was earmarked as someone who had more than a fair chance.
That progression has accelerated under Erik ten Hag this season. Mainoo caught the eye of the United manager in pre-season and although his progress was curtailed by an ankle injury, he was immediately restored to the senior set-up when he returned and has now started nine games in a row.
The last three of them have been alongside Casemiro, a five-times Champions League winner and 75-cap Brazil international who knows a thing or two about making it to the top of the game as a midfield player. The 31-year-old has taken his teammate 13 years his junior under his wing and it is a partnership that is showing signs of promise.
But if Casemiro has become Mainoo’s minder at United, it is the younger man whose energy is bringing balance to United’s midfield, making the former Real Madrid holding midfielder look much better than he did before suffering his own injury in November. The teenager from Stockport and the experienced midfielder from Sao Paulo are dovetailing on and off the pitch.
“Kobbie is very coachable, Casemiro has so much experience and Kobie will learn a lot from him and that can accelerate his development,” he said.
“When they play together I think they can take benefit from each other.
“Casemiro takes that responsibility, he takes it to him, he is talking to him, I see it in the dressing room, I see it on the pitch in games, I see it in training.
“Of course he looking at his own game but he’s trying to help and support Kobbie. Absolutely there is that bond (between them).”
Casemiro struggled early in this season and speculation over a move away from Old Trafford intensified, with the midfielder still having three years remaining on a sizeable contract at the end of this season, but his performances since returning to the side have suggested he can remain a major influence on Ten Hag’s team.
“He gives you calmness and composure on the ball, he gives you options, he sees the critical pass, so he is always a step ahead of his opponent to break lines,” the United boss said.
“So he is a very important player for our game and we’re happy he’s back.”
Mainoo’s emergence at United has been particularly impressive, given he has come into a team that was struggling for form and confidence.
He played in the first game of the pre-season tour of the United States, impressing in midfield against a strong Arsenal side, and then started against Real Madrid in Houston only to pick up his injury in a tackle with Rodrygo in the early stages of that game.
As soon as he returned to fitness he was back in the team, starting at Goodison Park in November at a time when United’s season was on the rocks and immediately adding an injection of energy and quality to the centre of the pitch. United have won six of the 11 games Mainoo has started this season, but lost 11 of the 22 he’s not.
“It is more easy to integrate young talent into a successful team. That’s true,” said Ten Hag.
“The conditions where we had to bring in Kobbie Mainoo were not so good that we knew beforehand that it would be a success. I had the confidence because I saw him performing and progressing in spring and summer.
“When I brought him in for the game against Arsenal, I didn’t have any doubts. But when he comes into the team there are many things he has to do on his own because when there are a lot of routines in the team it is much easier for him to come in.
“But we were not in that situation – and I don’t think this club has been in that situation for a long time.
“For many years, United have not been in that (successful) position, so we are building a team that can offer a foundation for young players to come in.
“We have to have a foundation so that we can add quality players to the squad to take the team to the next level.”
Although Mainoo has now started every game since the trip to Anfield on December 17, Ten Hag is treating him with care, withdrawing him at half-time at Nottingham Forest in the final game of 2023 and taking him off after 64 minutes against West Ham last weekend.
“I took him out on Sunday because it was the second game in nearly three days,” he said. “I brought him out against Nottingham Forest because it was the third game in a week.
“I have to protect the player because first he has to get used to the Premier League intensity and then he has to get used to doing in every third day.
“You can’t train that. It’s impossible. You can’t train it in the Under-21s. You can only train this in the Premier League and the Champions League when you play every third day.
“That means you have to make considerations. It’s about the team – but it’s also about protecting young players so they don’t get injured.
“Kobbie was injured twice and we don’t want that situation again because it stops his progress.”