It reminds Harrop of what he was and still is – a goalscoring United academy graduate.
Very few people can say they have scored for United, fewer can say they scored for United at Old Trafford but scoring at the Theatre of Dreams on your debut as an academy graduate is an acclaim that only a handful can boast. But Harrop did that.
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The dream debut
In May 2017, on the final day of that Premier League season in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, a Stockport-born boyhood United fan etched his name into folklore.
“I was a kid with a dream, and I was able to make my dream come true,” Harrop tells Sky Sports.
“It’s a privilege to have been able to get the opportunity to play for United and to score on my debut. I’d been at the club since I was six years old.”
It was an occasion that Harrop was prepared for. He was 21 at the time and felt the opportunity should have come sooner, but after then United boss Jose Mourinho watched him score a hat-trick for the reserves at Old Trafford just days prior the Portuguese asked Harrop if he was ready, to which he replied: “I’m ready.”
Just 15 minutes in, Paul Pogba clips the ball forward with the outside of his boot for Harrop to run onto. With it all still to do in the box, he ignores the pull back to Wayne Rooney and decides to go all by himself. Harrop cuts in and curls home. Cue the scenes.
“I didn’t feel the crowd. I didn’t feel the occasion. I felt like I was just playing football,” Harrop said.
“I was so used to doing it my whole life. When you’re on the pitch, you almost forget what’s around you. But the rest of the game was a blur to me.
“Even to this day, it’s like a blur because all I can remember is that moment. It’s probably the proudest moment of my life.
“I can’t explain the feeling because there’s no way of explaining it. It’s just from six years old; I trained my whole life, I dedicated everything.
“I left home at 13 years old and lived with a different family in Sale. It’s my whole journey from six years old to making my debut.
“To be able to score, to be able to get the man of the match, it’s something I’ll never forget.”
Harrop played the full 90 minutes alongside his “idols”. Michael Carrick’s words of wisdom calmed pre-match nerves and it was Rooney’s last Premier League game for United. But a first 90 minutes and taste of the pinnacle very quickly became the last that Harrop would play for the club.
His contract was coming to an end. A deal was on the table for Harrop to extend his stay at Old Trafford but it was an offer he reluctantly refused.
“I didn’t want to leave United. I’d just made my debut, I didn’t even think about leaving,” he said.
A prominent figure at the club had pulled him to one side and said that the offer was an indication of the lack of opportunity he’d get at the club.
At that stage of his development, for Harrop, it was crucial to play games and stay within the first-team environment.
“I asked if I was going to be involved with the first team that season and they couldn’t promise it to me.
“I felt there might not be a future here for me. I spoke to people at the club and they said it might be a time to go out and build a career for yourself somewhere else.
“It wasn’t a nice decision, but I felt it was right at the time.”
Hindsight is 20/20, as they say, but would Harrop have made a different decision looking back?
“I’ve never looked back once and thought I should have stayed.
“My dream came true and I left on a high. There’s always a ‘what if’ I stayed?
“I could have maybe, but the decisions I make in life, I stick to and I was happy with it.
Life beyond Carrington
Next, it was a move to Preston. Not a long journey from where Harrop had grown up but miles away from his lifelong comfort blanket at United.
“It’s a big shock to the system. I’ve always been around one environment, then straight into men’s football.
“The manager who signed me at the time left on my first day, so it didn’t work out perfectly from the beginning. Then Alex Neil came in and to be fair, he was probably not the best manager for me at the time because he didn’t really trust younger players.
“He was more structured. That’s the league, you get the managers who are more structured. I understand it now.
“My time at Preston, I actually loved it. To this day, the Preston fans always show me support.
“That club, I’ll always have those other players in my heart. I felt like it was like a home.”
Harrop’s five years at Preston became a period troubled by injury. An ACL injury kept him out for a year in his second season, and he never truly regained full fitness until years later.
Loans to Ipswich and Fleetwood before moves to Northampton and Cheltenham offered opportunities to reignite his potential but constant niggles, that made him consider retirement, robbed Harrop of an opportunity to realise that.
Finding ‘purpose’ in the Baller League
Now 29 and a free agent, this is the first time in Harrop’s career that he’s spent this long without a club. Completely over his injury issues, Harrop has been able to maintain his love for football in the inaugural Baller League UK.
Despite defeat to MVPs United, managed by Alisha Lehmann and Maya Jama, Harrop scored on the opening night for his RTW FC managed by Clint419.
Up against teams managed by legends, influencers and rappers alike within six-a-side competition, the Baller League has relit a fire within.
“It’s given me my purpose back in life,” he said.
“Being a free agent, you lose a bit of yourself when you’re not playing football. I’ve played football since I was six years old and for seven months, I’ve not been able to.
“Having the opportunity to go and play football, wherever that might be, it gives me that purpose. It gives me something to wake up and train for. A stadium like the Copper Box, which is full of people, live on Sky, it gives me something to focus on.
“My goal is I want to get back involved in football next season, and I want to hopefully sign somewhere. I’m 29 years old. I’ve got plenty of legs still in me. This is to keep me fit, to give me a little bit of purpose back in myself as a person and to just enjoy football.
“I’ve had a lot of injuries, and stressful times the last couple of years, and for me it’s just a goal to express myself and have fun.”
“I’m still getting used to the Baller League. There are so many rules. But it’s like when you were in the park and you were able to express yourself. It’s enjoyable. I like the concept of it.
“Everyone’s taking it seriously as well. It’s not like it’s a joke. The players there, they’re all serious. There’s some good talent.
“With all the names and everyone around it, it brings a whole community of people together. Players express themselves. It’s fast football. There’s going to be plenty of goals, plenty of skills. I like the concept. I like everything around it.
“It’s different. It’s not in the league, and it’s not 11-a-side, but it’s fun.”
Old Trafford to the Copper Box Arena – Jose Mourinho to Clint419 is some journey, but it’s one he’s fully embraced as the man with the perfect goal-to-game ratio at the Theatre of Dreams relights his career by taking the Baller League by storm.
