Who is Tahith Chong? Manchester United starlet makes debut against Reading in FA Cup

The 19-year-old Dutch winger was signed by United in 2016

Manchester United starlet Tahith Chong was introduced off the bench today in the club’s FA Cup third-round clash with Championship Reading at Old Trafford.

Chong, who was brought on in the 62nd minute, became the 229th player to successfully graduate from United's academy and make a debut senior appearance.

The 19-year-old Dutch winger, signed from Feyenoord in 2016, has impressed in the Premier League 2 Division 2 this season, scoring four goals in 12 appearances, and caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is keen to usher in a new crop of academy youngsters to rejuvenate the dressing room.

Chong won United’s Jimmy Murphy Youth Team Player of the Year award at the end of the 2018 season and is thought to have impressed Jose Mourinho during United’s pre-season tour in America and subsequently brought the shaggy-haired teenager into training with the first team on a number of occasions.

“He was good,” Mourinho said. “He came with the intention to show, and in a moment where we have no strikers on the pitch, Martial was the only one and then he left, so we needed people to create, have some initiative, which he did.”

The left-footed forward can play on either wing and travelled to Newcastle with the squad earlier in the season, but the ex-United boss felt it would be too harsh an introduction to the top level.

Another academy prospect primed to make their debut is England U-18s captain James Garner who has long been heralded as one of the most exciting homegrown talents to emerge from the club.