October 2024. International break. England at St George’s Park. Rashford in America somewhere, photographed in a hotel corridor in a Louis Vuitton coat while his teammates were training. Someone posted it with the caption “halfway across the world cosplaying as a rap star.” He was not in the squad. Had not been since March. Was not going to Euro 2024. Could not get a game at United. Was being talked about in the past tense by people who had watched him score thirty goals two seasons earlier.
Eighteen months later he is in the World Cup squad with eight goals and eight assists for Barcelona in La Liga.
For the full breakdown of Tuchel’s squad and every selection decision he made, our England World Cup 2026 squad analysis covers the 26, the big calls and who missed out.
THE FALL
Spring 2023. Rashford was scoring for fun and United were briefly the most exciting team in England to watch. Thirty goals. Carabao Cup winner. Running past Barcelona’s centre-backs at the Nou Camp like it was a training exercise. There were nights that season when he looked like the best forward in the country by a distance and nobody was really arguing with it.
What happened after that is a long story and most of it is not flattering. The Belfast nightclub at 5am before a training session. Ten Hag calling it “unacceptable.” The Love Island girlfriend giving interviews while he was barely playing. The US photographs during the international break. He wrote something for The Players’ Tribune that was supposed to put everything in context and it landed badly and made more headlines than it resolved. Southgate left him out of Euro 2024. He went the whole period from summer 2023 to January 2025 and scored fifteen goals. Fifteen. In all competitions.
Amorim took over in November and for about two weeks it looked like things might shift. Three goals in his first two games under the new manager. Then the alleged Friday night before the City derby, the training session the morning after that people who were there described as looking like he had not slept, and Amorim made his decision. Out against City. Out against Bournemouth. Out against Wolves. Out against Tottenham in the cup. Four squads in a row, not named, on £325,000 a week.
Eventually United just sent him to Aston Villa on loan because the alternative was paying his wages until the contract expired. “Ready for a new challenge,” he said when it was announced. The general feeling was that the challenge he needed was salvaging what was left of a career that had been spectacular and then messy and then mostly absent.
Barcelona came in last summer and the whole story changed.
WHAT HAPPENED IN SPAIN
Eight goals, eight assists, 31 league appearances, 1,761 minutes. Average rating of 7.18 across the season. A goal or an assist every 110 minutes. Above the 99th percentile for expected assists in La Liga. Fifth in Barcelona’s scoring charts in a team that includes Yamal, Raphinha and Dani Olmo.
These are not soft numbers. They do not come from a player having a good run of form in front of a forgiving defence. They come from a full season in the hardest league in Europe under a manager who won it back to back and does not carry passengers.
Flick’s Barcelona press from the front constantly and the wingers are not exempt from that. Every game, Rashford was tracking back, covering the space behind Balde on the left, pressing high when the trigger was there. When Flick’s wide players stop doing those things, they stop playing. It is that straightforward at Barcelona right now and Rashford figured it out and did not stop. That is the explanation for the numbers. Not form. Not luck. Doing what was asked every week in a system that made the consequences of not doing it immediately obvious.
WHY IT MAKES SENSE
Foden is not going to the World Cup. Palmer is not going. The case against both of them is the same: in Tuchel’s system, forwards have to contribute in both directions and neither did it convincingly enough in the March games against Uruguay and Japan. That is not a statement about their quality. It is a statement about what Tuchel needs from his wide players this summer.
Rashford has just spent a full La Liga season being exactly what Tuchel needs. Different club, different country, same requirement. Flick asked him to press, track back, cover ground, and use his pace in transition. Tuchel is asking for the same things from England’s wide forwards. Rashford went to Barcelona and proved for 1,761 minutes that he could deliver it at the highest level. Tuchel was watching.
He will not start against Croatia. Saka has that position when fit. But in the knockout rounds, off the bench in the second half of a tight game, Rashford at 28 and in the form of his career is a real option. That is what the Barcelona season bought him.
WHERE IT GOES FROM HERE
Aston Villa want him permanently. Reports say he wants to stay at Barcelona. His United contract is still running. None of that gets resolved before June 11.
Eighteen months from that hotel corridor photograph in America to an England World Cup squad. From Amorim’s training ground freeze-out to 8 goals and 8 assists in La Liga. From the Love Island circus to Flick’s Barcelona. Football does not often give you a comeback arc this clean. Rashford earned this one and the numbers prove it.
Dallas. June 17. Whether he plays or not, the story of how he got there is worth knowing.
For every other nation’s squad as they are confirmed heading into June, our World Cup 2026 squad tracker is updated daily across all 48 nations.