Luke Chadwick once was the envy of many when playing for Manchester United, but the 34-year-old is now living out his childhood dream playing for hometown club Cambridge.
Chadwick's past and present collide on Friday night when Manchester United, with whom he won a Premier League winners' medal in 2001, visit Cambridge's R Costings Abbey Stadium in the FA Cup fourth round.
"It's the first time I've been involved in a game against them, really looking forward to it," Chadwick told Press Association.
Chadwick made 39 appearances for Manchester United, 21 as a substitute, scoring two goals, after coming through the youth team ranks to play under Sir Alex Ferguson.
"It was a great time," Chadwick added. "I went there when I was about 15, stayed there for a good six, seven years and really, really enjoyed it. [Ferguson] was an incredible manager, an incredible man. It's great that I can say I played under probably the best manager in the history of football."
Chadwick made his debut in a League Cup clash at Villa Park in October 1999 and left in 2004. Spells at West Ham, Stoke, Norwich and MK Dons followed before last March he signed for Cambridge.
"To come here was a dream of mine since I was a kid," Chadwick said. "It was great to finally come here, pull on that amber shirt and play for the club I supported as a child. I love this club. It means everything to me."
Chadwick helped Cambridge win the FA Trophy and end a nine-year absence from the Football League with promotion to League Two. Both successes were achieved at Wembley, so Chadwick knows Richard Money's side will not be fazed by the occasion.
"It's a great club here at Cambridge and we deserve this draw against a massive club," he said. "We've got some fantastic players here at Cambridge. I'm sure they can't wait to get on the pitch. We'll have the whole world watching on Friday night and they'll be able to show them how good they are."
Dion Dublin, who played for both Cambridge and Manchester United in his time, also urged Cambridge to write themselves into the record books. The former U's striker labelled their FA Cup fourth-round clash with Manchester United one of the biggest in their history.
Dublin fired Cambridge to successive FA Cup quarter-finals in 1990 and 1991, scoring in their 2-1 defeat at Arsenal during their second run. Two promotions under John Beck also helped earn him a 1 million-pound move to Old Trafford in 1992. And ahead of the League Two side's mammoth tie against United, Dublin believes Cambridge are preparing for history.
"You might have to take away their two Wembley appearances -- then you've got the top three," said Dublin, who scored in the first ever play-off final at Wembley when Cambridge beat Chesterfield 1-0 in 1990. "You have Manchester United at The Abbey. It's a chance to play the best players in the world, Juan Mata, Robin van Persie, Angel Di Maria.
"You have a chance to write your name in to the history books. Someone is going to be a hero or a villain.
"There are going to be 8,000 people there, it will be rammed with black and amber fans. The TV cameras will be there, Manchester United will be there and I don't think that's anything more Cambridge could have asked for in the next round.
"They have everything they could wish for, now put the game plan into action. If they could take a draw it would be huge. Manchester United should win comfortably and they should be thinking 'Right what's next?', with respect to Cambridge."
The FA Cup is United manager Louis van Gaal's only realistic chance of silverware in his first season at Old Trafford. They are fourth in the Barclays Premier League and were stunned 4-0 by MK Dons in the Capital One Cup in August.
Dublin, though, feels Van Gaal's success at United does not hinge on whether he wins a trophy this term.
"He wants to win but it's a huge change in the shift of the club and he cannot change it around in a few months," said the 45-year-old. "It's different people, they have to find out what the boss wants. But he will be successful, I have no doubt. I would hope they wouldn't go to down the same line as what happened at MK Dons, though.
"They embarrassed United and Karl Robinson got his tactics bang on and his players were superb. Louis van Gaal will be thinking he can't allow that to happen again."
Chadwick was at stadium:mk when MK Dons beat Louis van Gaal's side 4-0 in the Capital One Cup in August, and he said: "Milton Keynes were fantastic that night and thoroughly deserved their win. We're playing against a world-class team. All we can do is go out there, play to the best of our abilities, work as hard as we can and see where that takes us."
Information from Press Association was used in this report.