From Manchester United to Macclesfield: 'It's been a while since I enjoyed football'

MACCLESFIELD, England – On a frosty January night at Leasing.com Stadium, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson stood ankle-deep in celebration confetti, the glow of floodlights reflecting off a face that finally looked relaxed. Nine days earlier the 29-year-old had helped National League North side Macclesfield FC topple holders Crystal Palace in the FA Cup third round, a result that sits 117 places above them on the English pyramid. On Monday he will walk out against Brentford for another crack at the competition that once provided his Manchester United debut. It is, he admits, the first time in years he has felt genuine joy on a pitch.

“I’ve been through spells where I questioned whether I still loved the game,” Borthwick-Jackson told reporters this week, leaning against a cinder-block corridor still echoing with cheers from the Palace upset. “Signing here reminded me why I started kicking a ball in the first place.”

The journey back to happiness began in the most unlikely of settings. A viral clip circulated earlier this month showing the United coach approaching Upton Park in May 2016, windows smashed by projectiles on the Hammers’ final day at the Boleyn Ground. While Jesse Lingard shouted and Michael Carrick filmed on his phone, a teenage Borthwick-Jackson sat calmly scrolling. “Double-glazed windows, privacy glass on top, police on board—what’s going to happen?” he shrugs now. “That’s just me. Cool, calm, collected.”

That composure carried him into Louis van Gaal’s first-team plans the previous autumn. Handed his Premier League debut against West Brom in November 2015, the left-back started six top-flight matches and logged nearly 700 minutes as part of a youth movement that also launched Marcus Rashford. “Van Gaal was a perfectionist, but brilliant with us,” he recalls. “A lot of us owe him our careers.”

Yet the managerial change that brought José Mourinho in the summer of 2016 altered the trajectory. A pre-season injury, a relocation from the senior dressing room, and a loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers began a nomadic sequence: Leeds, Scunthorpe, Tranmere, Oldham, Burton, Polish top-flight side Slask Wroclaw, and a stint at Ross County. Released by United in 2020, Borthwick-Jackson spent 18 months without a club, his passion eroded by distance from sons Theo and Carter and the breakdown of a relationship.

“Poland was professional, the city beautiful, but I’d fly back, see the kids a few days, then break their hearts leaving again,” he says. “When football stopped, I was alone in an apartment asking, ‘Is this worth it?’”

He returned to England in 2024, walked away from a two-year deal, and contemplated joining his father Mark in wealth management. Instead, he hired a fitness coach, trained alone, and waited. A call from Macclesfield—reborn after liquidation in 2020 and now chasing promotion from the sixth tier under John Rooney, younger brother of Wayne—arrived just after Christmas. Borthwick-Jackson signed on 2 January, started two league fixtures, and entered in the 87th minute against Palace as the Silkmen clung to a 2-1 lead.

The final whistle triggered bedlam. Players sprinted toward the Town End; supporters spilled onto the pitch. Borthwick-Jackson sought out one man near the tunnel. “Dad’s been at every game since I was six,” he says, voice cracking. “He knew the tough stuff behind the scenes. Seeing him tear up meant more than any headline.”

Father and son will reunite in the stands on Monday when Brentford visit for the fourth round. Training at the club’s modest Hurst Cross facility, Borthwick-Jackson insists there is no target beyond relishing each session. “I’m not plotting a return to the Championship or anything,” he smiles. “I just want Saturdays to feel like this again—win, lose, just enjoying football.”

After a decade of buses with shattered glass, cross-border commutes, and lonely nights abroad, the defender who once sat unfazed amid chaos has found serenity in Cheshire’s sixth tier. For Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, that is miracle enough.