Image Credit: @ManUtd Twitter

January 22nd 2026, Manchester United officially announced that their Brazilian defensive midfielder Casemiro will be seeing out his contract and will become a free agent at the end of the 2025/2026 season in June. It is not a huge surprise that this is the case as many United fans already knew that Casemiro was on his final year of his United contract however there was a possibility he could have extended his stay by 1 additional year with the option to extend clause his contract. As previously mentioned, both Man Utd and Casemiro have agreed to part ways at the end of the season after nearly 4 years of working together. Currently Casemiro is playing really well this season which is why it will be difficult for many fans to see their number 18 walk away at the end of the season. The 33-year-old has had a very rollercoaster like career at Man Utd with very many ups and some very memorable downs but as the saying goes, class is permanent.

Debut Season

On August 22nd 2022, Manchester United announced the signing of Casemiro arriving from Real Madrid for a fee reported to be around €70m and becoming Erik Ten Hag’s 4th signing of the summer. The then 30-year-old was reportedly set to complete his move to the Red Devils following United’s 4-0 defeat away from home against Brentford where Casemiro reportedly texted his agent saying: “Tell them I’ll fix it”. After a short adjustment period for the Spanish La Liga to the English Premier League, Casemiro very quickly became an integral part Man Utd’s 2022/2023 season by forming a midfield partnership with Christian Eriksen and also becoming an unlikely reliable source for goals for Man Utd. Casemiro’s strength, intensity, passion and overall technical ability completely changed Man Utd’s midfield and showed many fans the type of quality their midfield had been lacking for ages.

Casemiro acquired his first goal contribution for the club by assisting Cristiano Ronaldo’s 700th career goal against Everton and followed that up by scoring his first ever Premier League goal with a stoppage time equalizing header against Chelsea. Since then, Casemiro had become one of Man Utd’s reliable goal scorers especially during set pieces with the most notable one being the Brazilian’s headed goal from a free kick set piece that gave Man Utd a 2-0 lead in their EFL Cup victory over Newcastle United.

  • Apps – 51
  • Goals – 7
  • Assists – 6
  • Tackles – 76
  • Interceptions – 37
  • Clearances – 46
  • Successful Passes – 687

Going from CDM to CB

After a very successful first season at United that saw them end their trophy draught by winning the EFL Cup, reaching the finals of the FA Cup and qualifying for the Champions League by finishing 3rd in the Premier League, Manchester United went through a very difficult 2023/2024 season where quite a lot of Man Utd’s players had the fingers pointed at them with claims of being “not good enough” to be Man Utd players. Jamie Carrragher famously said: “Leave the football before the football leaves you” when talking about Casemiro’s poor form in his second season at the club where the then 32-year-old midfielder looked like a shadow of his former self. During this season Man Utd were also having an injury crisis which saw then manager Erik Ten Hag try different tactical changes to compensate for the key players missing through injuries and one of those changes was to play Casemiro as a Centre Back. This tactical change only went to further the scrutiny aimed at the Brazilian as his struggles only seemed to worsen playing him out of his natural position however the silver lining in that difficult period was Man Utd winning the FA Cup final against their rivals Manchester City which also helped them qualify for the Europa League. His best performance during this very difficult season was early on in the Champions League group stage in Man Utd’s 4-3 defeat to Bayern Munich where Casemiro scored a brace late on in the game to make the score 4-3 and gave his team some hope of securing a point.

Redemption Season

After the disastrous 2023/24 season, there was plenty of speculation on the future of Casemiro with many links to the Saudi Pro League as a possible solution as the Brazilian’s huge wages were deterring European clubs from approaching him however the former Real Madrid man was determined to still be a part of Manchester United plans going into his third season at the club. The season was not off to a dream start as Man Utd faced Liverpool in the Premier League and suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat where Casemiro unfortunately took the spotlight as the Real Madrid legend had a miserable 45 minutes and even gave away a pass that led to  Liverpool’s second goal of the game. Casemiro was substituted at Half Time for the then 21-year-old academy graduate Toby Collyer which further added to the criticism towards Man Utd number 18. Some time after Erik Ten Hag was eventually sacked by Man Utd and Ruud van Nistelrooy took over as Interim Head Coach which seemingly revitalised Casemiro as he went on to score a brace against Leicester City in the EFL Cup however following the appointment of Ruben Amorim and his back 3 system, Casemiro slowly lost his place in the team and seemed surplus to requirements at the club once more. However, after a string of good performances Casemiro once again became an integral part of Man Utd season by forming a midfield partnership with captain Bruno Fernandes. The most notable of those performances came in the Europa League reverse fixture against Olympique Lyonnais where Casemiro won a penalty for Man Utd’s 3rd goal of the game and then proceeded to assist Man Utd’s 4th and 5th goals in an incredible 5-4 game which sent Man Utd through to the finals for the Europa League.

Final Season

This current 2025/2026 season Casemiro has maintained his place in the team as Man Utd’s starting midfield under Ruben Amorim and has started the season off well with 5 goal contributions in 21 games. He maintained his midfield partnership with Bruno Fernandes for most of this season and Manchester United tend to have a much better win rate as well as maintain an overall better performance level when the Brazilian is on the field. In January 2026 Ruben Amorim was let go by Man Utd and as is the title of this article, Casemiro will soon follow suit at the end of this season however not without giving the club his very best until the end of his contract as he stated in his farewell announcement video.

“My complete focus will, as always, remain on giving my everything to help our club succeed.” – Casemiro 2026