Rayan Cherki: The Rising Talent with Genius Potential
Rayan Cherki has been called many things in his young career. For Pierre Sage, the word “talent” barely scratches the surface.
The coach, who worked with Cherki through Lyon’s academy and into the first team, remembers a player whose potential was never in doubt – at least not in his own mind.
“It was a process with him, because a lot of people thought that he would not have success in his career. I did not have this same thought,” Sage said ahead of Friday’s clash in South London.
“I explained to him: ‘You have a big talent, and I think you can show it in special contexts’. And he did that in his last game against Bournemouth.”
That performance has only strengthened the belief of senior figures at City, who view Cherki as a long-term heir to Kevin De Bruyne, the man expected to carry the club’s attacking creativity into the next era. The plan is clear: groom the Frenchman to eventually take over the keys to the midfield.
Sage, though, saw the blueprint years ago. The challenge was never what Cherki could do with the ball. It was everything else.
“You have to give something for the team defensively and keep your talent in attack,” he said. “I had nothing to say to him offensively because he understood the play better than me.”
Stopping him, Sage admits, is another matter entirely.
“To control him, the best thing is to prevent all the passes to him, because when he has the ball he is able to do things we don't imagine.”
Cherki has already described his former coach as a footballing genius. When that compliment was put to Sage, he pushed it straight back in the playmaker’s direction.
“I don't know the word for higher than a genius. I am not a genius; he is a genius,” Sage replied. “To speak about something and to teach something is a step. But to do these things is another step. He is at this level. Maybe God?”
City believe they are backing a future leader of their attack. Sage sounds like a man convinced they might be dealing with something even rarer.
