Man Utd confirm first stop of 2025 pre-season tour | OneFootball

Manchester United's first pre-season friendly of the summer will take them back to Scandinavia for the eighth time in the space of 14 years.

Traditionally drawing a large fanbase from the region in northern Europe, United have made a habit of playing a game on Scandi soil over the last few summers in particular.

Although the main part of the club's official 'Tour' has taken place elsewhere, one-off games against a variety of local and international opposition has been played each permissible year since 2019 – there was no international travel in 2020 or 2021 due to Covid-19.

Last summer, the Red Devils faced Rosenborg in Trondheim, with Leeds United, Atletico Madrid and Kristiansund, the latter Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's home-town club, other opponents for friendlies that have all been played in Norway in the last six years alone.

This summer, United will face Leeds again, having won 2-0 last year courtesy of goals from youngsters Noam Emeran and Joe Hugill. But it will be played at Stockholm's Strawberry Arena, the first pre-season game of the summer, scheduled for 14:00 BST (15:00 CET) on 19 July.

The game will also mark United's first pre-season visit to Sweden since 2016 when Jose Mourinho led the club to a 5-2 win over Galatasaray in Gothenburg. Mourinho took his team back to Sweden ten months later, facing Ajax in Stockholm to win the Europa League.

Man Utd's last trip to Stockholm was the 2017 Europa League final / Nils Petter Nilsson/GettyImages

The Strawberry Arena, albeit known as the Friends Arena at the time, was also the venue for that final. Eight years on, Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford are the only surviving United players, but Shaw missed the showdown through injury and Rashford's time at the club may soon be over. Andre Onana and Matthijs de Ligt did both play in that game for Ajax, though.

United's previous visit to the same stadium in Stockholm came in 2013, a pre-season friendly against local side AIK that finished 1-1 and also happened to be David Moyes' first game in charge on European soil, following an earlier tour of east Asia and Australia.

This summer, the bulk of the pre-season programme will take place in the United States, playing three games across America as part of the Premier League Summer Series.