Anthony Elanga proved to be the hero for Manchester United against Atletico Madrid with a late goal against Diego Simeone's side in the first-leg of their Champions League contest.
However, it has since emerged the Swedish teenager was considering a loan move away from Old Trafford before the January transfer window.
The 19-year-old made history as he became the club's youngest ever goalscorer in the knockout stages of European football's most prestigious competition.
Elanga bagged the equaliser at the Wanda Metropolitano to swing the momentum of the contest ahead of the second leg at Old Trafford early next month.
The 80th minute strike marked Elanga's third of the season having notched his first last month against Brentford and second last Sunday at Leeds.
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The winger has enjoyed a stellar run of form since interim boss Ralf Rangnick arrived at the helm.
Though he was given his United debut by Rangnick's predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last May, he had featured just once under the Norwegian this season despite a positive pre-season.
Since the German's first game in the United hot-seat, Elanga has been handed 13 appearances across all competitions.
Elanga is now likely to earn his first call-up to the senior Sweden national side as a result, but things could have played out very differently had he departed on loan last month.
Rangnick has revealed how his first training session with Elanga ensured that the wide-man would not be going anywhere and instead play a vital role for the Red Devils this term.
"Apart from his name, of course, I had heard about his name before but not as a player because he didn't play for Manchester United," Rangnick said of Elanga.
"The first training session the night before the Crystal Palace game, he was the player with the best training performance.
"I asked my staff members about him and found out he had almost already decided to leave the club on loan.
"So a week after the Palace game (he came on in the game) I said, listen, I want you stay and see how you are doing in the training games until the end of the closure of the transfer window.
"I think right now he has just shown what is possible in football with the right mentality, the right approach, this is exactly what he did and what he always does in every training session."
Elanga was only introduced off the bench with 15 minutes left to play, but Rangnick explained how his cameo had more to it than just his goal.
"In all the games he has played so far, he just shows that he's playing with all the passion and all the fun, he's just enjoying himself on the pitch.
"He's fully aware of his strengths, of his assets and his weapons. He is always trying to play and show those weapons. This is what he did today.
"Apart from the goal he scored, he had two or three great runs and whenever he did that you could all of a sudden see Atletico had problems with this kind of approach."
