Manucho lives up to the hype

Manchester United's attempt to conquer the world received a boost last night when Manucho scored a spectacular goal for Angola in the 1-1 draw with South Africa. Sir Alex Ferguson has steered clear of signing African players since he got his fingers burned after taking a disastrous £3.5 million punt on Eric Djemba-Djemba five years ago but the United manager was so impressed with Manucho during a three-week trial last month that he offered the 24-year-old striker a three-year contract.

Manucho needs to impress during the tournament to convince the Home Office that he meets the criteria to obtain a work permit and he made an impact after 19 minutes yesterday by scoring with a diving header from a cross by Flavio at the Tamal Sports Stadium.

"We hope he does well in the African Cup of Nations because he has to play enough games to qualify for a work permit," Ferguson said. "We had him for three weeks and he did exceptionally well. He has good assets. He is quick, aggressive and very agile. If we can get the work permit we can map out a future for him but I don't see him as a first-team player this season."

Angola have never progreessed beyond the group stages of the Nations Cup but they are emerging as one of the competitions surprise packages. Luis Oliveira Goncalves's team lost only once in the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006 and will have an excellent chance of reaching the knockout stages in Ghana if they beat Senegal on Sunday.

Kaveh Solhekol