Rico Lewis faces major summer 2025 dilemma over Manchester City availability at Club World Cup | OneFootball

Manchester City could yet be without rising starlet full-back and midfield option Rico Lewis for the revamped FIFA Club World Cup in the USA, a report has explained.

Pep Guardiola and his side qualified for the tournament for the first time last season, after winning the UEFA Champions League through a 1-0 win over Inter at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.

Victories over Urawa Red Diamonds and Fluminense in Saudi Arabia in December made Manchester City champions of the world for the first time in the club’s history, although they will have a second shot at world glory in 2025.

FIFA’s revamped version of the tournament – hosted by the United States – will see 32 teams from across the world go head to head in between the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons, in a turnaround that has already been heavily criticised by coaches.

To add to the frustrations of Pep Guardiola in particular, his Manchester City squad could be restricted in terms of personnel through a European youth tournament over the summer months of 2025.

As explained by Jack Gaughan in the latest edition of MailSport’s Man City Notebook, a logistical dilemma could present itself for both Rico Lewis and Manchester City next summer through international football commitments.

Should Rico Lewis continue as an Under-21 international with England into next season, the report points out that the Under-21 European Championships would kick-off three days after Manchester City’s FIFA Club World Cup campaign in America.

Lewis has endured another developmental season at Manchester City, following on from his meteoric rise during the second-half of the club’s historic Treble-winning campaign when he took the right-back position by storm.

The ongoing season has seen Rico Lewis star predominantly throughout Manchester City’s midfield, deployed as an attacking options against the likes of BSC Young Boys and RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League, as well as Arsenal away from home.

The Bury-born full-back’s versatility has established him as a firm favourite in the eyes of Pep Guardiola, who is keen to coach Lewis to becoming Manchester City’s next poster boy from the Academy since Phil Foden’s first emergence in 2017.