Manchester United
On 27 December, French sources revealed that Manchester United was interested in signing Evra. Despite rumours of Monaco reaching a transfer agreement with Internazionale, on 3 January 2006, Evra revealed he preferred to move to England to join Manchester United. The following day, Manchester United officially issued a transfer bid for the player. On 6 January, United manager Alex Ferguson confirmed a deal for Evra was reached. Four days later, the transfer was official as Evra joined the club for a transfer fee of around £5.5 million and signed a three-and-a-half-year contract. Evra's arrival signalled Ferguson's intention to shore up the club's defence that had suffered since the sidelining of Gabriel Heinze. After joining the club, Evra affirmed that Manchester was his only future destination: "I was not very keen to go forward in the talks with Arsenal, Liverpool or Real Madrid. They all talked with my agent in the past two seasons. But to me, it was over. As I said to the Monaco officials, I only wanted to hear about Manchester."
Evra initially had some problems adapting to the English game. He made his debut for the club on 14 January in a 3–1 away defeat to Manchester City in the Premier League, and he was substituted at half-time after failing to make an impact. After the conclusion of the match, Ferguson stated, "Maybe it was a bit of a gamble playing Evra," while the player himself admitted that "playing for Manchester United was something I was not prepared for". Despite the initial set-back, Evra started in the team's ensuing match against Liverpool, a 1–0 victory, and was praised for his performance by teammate Rio Ferdinand. On 26 February, Evra appeared as a substitute in United's 4–0 win over Wigan Athletic in the 2006 League Cup final. On 2 March, it was reported that Liverpool defender Steve Finnan had racially abused Evra in the match. The abuse claims surfaced from two deaf television viewers lodging a police complaint. The viewers claimed to have lip-read Finnan abusing Evra during the televised match. Finnan denied the charge and, after an investigation, The Football Association (FA) decided against charging the player. Evra regularly alternated between the bench and the starting 11 to close out the campaign. He finished the season with 14 total appearances for his new club.
In Evra's first full season as a Manchester United player, he struggled to consistently appear as a starter early on in the season as Ferguson preferred Evra's compatriot Mikaël Silvestre. After appearing as an unused substitute in United's first two Champions League matches, on 17 October 2006, Evra made his European debut for the club in its 3–0 group stage win over Copenhagen. On 18 November, he provided the assist for the game-winning goal, scored by Wayne Rooney, in the team's 2–1 win over Sheffield United. Eight days later, Evra scored his first goal for the club in a 3–0 league win over Everton, also contributing an assist. By December, Evra began featuring as a regular in the starting 11. After starting in United's 3–1 Champions League win over Benfica on 6 December, Evra started nine consecutive matches. Evra provided assists in two of the matches; a Rooney goal in a 2–1 away defeat to Arsenal and another in a 2–0 victory over Charlton Athletic. On 10 April 2007, Evra scored the final goal in a 7–1 win over Roma in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League. The goal was his first-ever in the Champions League and helped progress Manchester United to the semi-finals, where the club suffered defeat to the eventual champions Milan. Following the league season, which Manchester United won by a six-point margin, Evra was named to the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Team of the Year, despite only appearing in 24 league matches.
Evra began the 2007–08 season as the first-choice left-back. He began the campaign appearing in United's 3–0 penalty shoot-out win over rivals Chelsea in the 2007 FA Community Shield. In competitive matches, Evra appeared in the club's first 12 matches. He missed his first match of the season against Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League after suffering a calf injury during warm-ups. Evra returned to the team a few days later for the team's league match against Arsenal. The rest paid off as he assisted Cristiano Ronaldo's goal in the 82nd minute to give United a 2–1 lead. France teammate William Gallas later equalised for Arsenal to draw the match at 2–2. In the return match against Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League, Evra provided the assist for one of the goals in a 4–0 victory. Though he made 48 appearances in all competitions, Evra failed to score a goal. Manchester United clinched its second consecutive Premier League title on the final day, edging Chelsea by two points. The club later completed a double after defeating the same club on penalties in the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final. Evra made ten appearances in the competition, which included playing the entire 120 minutes in the final. After the season, on 12 June, he signed a four-year contract extension with Manchester United, a deal that was set to keep him at Old Trafford until 2012.
Prior to the start of the 2008–09 season, on 18 July 2008, Evra was charged with four separate counts of improper conduct by the FA. The charges were related to an incident that occurred during the 2007–08 season when Evra had an altercation with a Chelsea groundsman during a warm-down following a match on 26 April. The defender denied the charges and was supported by several members of the club's staff, who commented that the player was racially abused by the groundsman prior to the confrontation. Evra remained free to play for United up to the date of the hearing despite the charges being made in July 2008. He began the campaign in similar fashion to the previous season as Manchester United won the Community Shield following the team's 3–0 victory over Portsmouth on penalties. Evra was ever-present in Manchester United's first 22 competitive matches of the season, starting 19 of them. At the hearing on 5 December, Evra was found guilty of improper conduct, and handed a four-match ban – due to start on 22 December 2008 – and a £15,000 fine.
Despite the suspension, Evra still featured with Manchester United in December as the club participated in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. He appeared in both matches the team contested as United came out as champions after defeating Ecuadorian club LDU Quito in the final. Evra temporarily returned to the team domestically for its home match against Chelsea on 11 January 2009, assisting the second goal in a 3–0 victory. He was later forced to leave the match due to a foot injury, which was later discovered to be serious. Evra missed a month and returned to the line-up on 15 February in a 3–0 win over Fulham. Evra subsequently appeared in every remaining competitive match for United, excluding an April league match against Sunderland, as the club cruised to its third consecutive Premier League title, won the League Cup, and reached the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final after defeating league rivals Arsenal 4–1 on aggregate in the semi-finals. Following the second leg against Arsenal, Evra was asked his opinion of the team's 3–1 second leg victory, and declared, "It was 11 men against 11 babies. We never doubted ourselves." The final marked Evra's third appearance in Champions League finals as Manchester United lost 2–0 to Barcelona. At the end of the season, Evra was included in the PFA Team of the Year for the second time.
For the first time in his career, Evra appeared in all 38 league matches in the 2009–10 season. The campaign initially began badly for him after he delivered a soft penalty shot, described by some in the media as "awful", in the team's penalty shoot-out defeat to Chelsea in the 2009 FA Community Shield. Due to injuries to Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, he captained the team in several matches during the season wearing the armband for the first time in his Manchester United career in the team's 3–1 Champions League victory over VfL Wolfsburg. In December 2009, Evra was among three Manchester United players named to the FIFPro World XI for the 2009 calendar year, before being named to the UEFA Team of the Year in January 2010. On 28 February 2010, Evra captained Manchester United to a 2–1 win against Aston Villa in the 2010 League Cup final. The league cup title was Evra's fourth overall as well as his first title earned as a captain. He also became only the second Frenchman after Eric Cantona to captain a Manchester United team to victory in a major competition. In league play, Manchester United failed to win its fourth-straight league title, conceding the honour to Chelsea. The club also failed to reach the Champions League final for their third-straight final appearance, losing to German champions Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.
Early on during the 2010–11 season, Evra was hampered by constant inquiries about what happened at the 2010 FIFA World Cup from the French Football Federation (FFF), the French media, as well as the French government. Evra's contract with Manchester United was also up at the end of the 2011–12 season, which led to the player being linked with a move to Real Madrid. Evra's hearing with the FFF in Paris, which he attended, was held the day after the team's opening 3–0 league win over Newcastle United. Evra played over 85 minutes in the match. On 20 November, Evra scored his second Premier League goal in a 2–0 win at home against Wigan Athletic. On 21 February 2011, after weeks of negotiations, Evra signed a contract extension with Manchester United that would keep him with the club until at least the end of the 2013–14 season. Two days after signing his contract extension, Evra participated in United's 0–0 draw with Marseille in the first leg of the team's first knockout round tie in the Champions League. The match, played at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, was Evra's first match played in France since the 2010 World Cup debacle. As a consequence, he was subjected to a barrage of jeers and boos every time he touched the ball.
At the start of the 2011–12 season, Evra helped United win the 2011 Community Shield against Manchester City on 7 August. Despite being caught out in the first half by a header from Joleon Lescott and a long-range Edin Džeko strike that put City into a 2–0 lead, United rallied in the second half and won 3–2 to claim the Shield. On 15 October, Evra captained Manchester United in the club's 1–1 draw away to Liverpool. Following the match, in an interview with French television channel Canal+, Evra asserted that Liverpool player Luis Suárez had racially abused him multiple times during the match. He also stated that he had informed referee Andre Marriner of the incidents at the conclusion of the match. The following day, the FA announced it would investigate the claim, and on 17 November, the FA announced it would charge Suárez with "abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour contrary to FA rules", including "a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Patrice Evra".
During the 2012–13 season, despite being just 174 cm (5 ft 9 in) tall, Evra built up a reputation as an attacking threat at corners, doubling his goals tally from his previous seven years at the club with three headed goals from corners in the space of 13 games, against Newcastle United, Arsenal and Swansea City. He continued this run into the 2013–14 season, heading home against Cardiff City on 24 November 2013. In addition to the headers, Evra has also scored twice from open play since the start of the 2012–13 season, the first a low drive from just outside the penalty area against Newcastle on Boxing Day 2012, and the second a curling, right-footed effort against Stoke City in the fifth round of the League Cup almost a year later. On 23 May 2014, Evra signed a new one-year contract extension that would have kept him at Manchester United until at least the summer of 2015.
