Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.
In 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United was the first English football club to win the European Cup, ten years after the Munich air disaster that claimed the lives of eight players. The current manager, Alex Ferguson, is the most successful manager in the club's history, having won 26 major honours since he took over in November 1986.
Having won 18 league titles, four League Cups and a record 11 FA Cups, Manchester United is one of the most successful clubs in the history of English football. The club has also won three European Cups and is unique in having won a Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League Treble, in the 1998–99 season.
Manchester United is one of the wealthiest and most widely supported football teams in the world. The club is said to be worth £1.19 billion, making it the most valuable football club in the world. After being floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1991, the club was purchased by Malcolm Glazer in May 2005 in a deal valuing the club at almost £800 million.Manchester United's first trophy was the Manchester Cup, which they won as Newton Heath LYR in 1886. Their first national senior honour came in 1908, when they won the 1907–08Football League First Division title. The club also won the FA Cup for the first time the following year. In terms of the number of trophies won, the 1990s was Manchester United's most successful decade, during which time they won five league titles, four FA Cups, one League Cup, five Charity Shields (one shared), one UEFA Champions League, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup and one Intercontinental Cup.
The club currently holds the record for the most FA Cups, with 11, and the record for the most FA Cup Final appearances, with 18. They were also the first team to win the Premier League, as well as holding the record for the most Premier League titles, and became the first English team to win the European Cup when they won it in 1968. Their most recent trophy came in August 2010, when they won the FA Community Shield. The only major honour that Manchester United F.C. has not yet won is the UEFA Europa League.The first player for whom Manchester United, then Newton Heath, received a fee was William Bryant, who moved to Blackburn Rovers for just £50 in April 1900. That same month,Manchester City paid five times more for Scottish forward Joe Cassidy. The club's first £1,000 sale came 12 years later with the sale of Harold Halse to Aston Villa.
The club's first British record sale came in March 1949, when Derby County paid £24,500 for Johnny Morris. However, 35 years passed before Manchester United next broke the record for the biggest sale by a British club; the sale of Ray Wilkins to Milan for £1.5 million in June 1984 was also the club's first million-pound sale. Another British record followed two years later with the sale of Mark Hughes to Barcelona for £2.5 million. The club's record sale increased fivefold in the space of two transfers over the next 15 years; first with the £7 million sale of Paul Ince to Internazionale in 1995, and then the 2001 transfer of Jaap Stam to Lazio for £15.25 million. Manchester United broke the world transfer record for the first time in July 2009 with the £80 million sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid.
