Jesse Lingard Returns to England Amid Corinthians Struggles
Jesse Lingard’s latest football chapter has hit an unexpected pause. The former Manchester United midfielder, now with Corinthians, has been granted permission to return to England on Thursday to deal with family matters, the Brazilian club have confirmed.
Corinthians announced on their official X account that “the attacker Jesse Lingard was authorized by the football board and by coach Fernando Diniz to travel to England… to attend to family matters.” The club added that the 33-year-old will miss Saturday’s Brazilian Championship clash with Grêmio.
For a player whose career has rarely followed a straight line, it is another twist.
From Wembley glory to a Brazilian first
Lingard left Manchester United in 2022 after more than 200 appearances and a catalogue of moments that etched him into the club’s modern history. None loom larger than his extra-time winner at Wembley in the 2016 FA Cup final against Crystal Palace, a strike that sealed the trophy and cemented his reputation as a big-game performer.
After Old Trafford came Nottingham Forest, then an ambitious move to South Korea with FC Seoul. Two years in Asia broadened his football horizons and set up his bold leap into Brazilian football with Corinthians.
Since landing in São Paulo earlier this year, Lingard has done more than just adapt. He has made history.
The Carrington academy product became the first Englishman ever to score for a Brazilian club. He then went one step further, becoming the first English player to score in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s answer to the Champions League. It is a small statistic in the grand sweep of the competition’s history, but a landmark all the same.
So far, Lingard has played 17 matches for Corinthians, with two goals and one assist to his name. His most recent outing was a 45-minute cameo in a 3-1 Serie A victory over Clube Atlético Mineiro, a reminder of the quality he can still inject between the lines.
A club under strain, a player in demand
His absence comes at a delicate moment for Corinthians. Domestically, they are toiling. Fifteenth in the Brazilian league, they sit only three points and two places above the relegation zone. Every fixture feels heavy, every point a small act of resistance against a slide they cannot afford.
The contrast with their continental form is stark. In the Libertadores, Corinthians have surged to the top of Group E after six matches, showing a composure and cutting edge that has too often deserted them in Serie A. Lingard’s presence in that campaign has added profile and a touch of European pedigree to a squad trying to reassert itself on the biggest South American stage.
Now, as he returns to England temporarily, Corinthians must navigate both fronts without him, at least in the short term. The club have not indicated how long he will be away, only that he has been formally released from the Grêmio match.
For Lingard, whose career has already spanned Manchester, Nottingham, Seoul and São Paulo, this latest journey is not about a transfer or a new adventure. It is about family.
What comes next, for both player and club, will unfold quickly. Corinthians are fighting to keep their heads above water in the league while dreaming of going deep in the Libertadores. Lingard has already written his name into their history; the question now is how big a role he will play in the chapters still to be written this season.
