Bernardo Silva piles on the praise for Manchester City starlet Claudio Echeverri | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Claudio Echeverri has received extremely high praise from the club’s captain Bernardo Silva following his start to life with the club.

The Argentina international has certainly stirred up conversation among Manchester City fans online and across the globe over his potential and hopes of becoming a mainstay figure in Pep Guardiola’s set-up.

Having been integrated into the first-team at the Etihad in January, Echeverri had to bide his time for his first on-field competitive opportunities, with Guardiola thrusting the youngster into the action in the FA Cup Final and final game of the last Premier League season.

Those showings were then eclipsed by the 19-year-old’s full first-team debut for the club coming at the FIFA Club World Cup, starting in the group stage of the competition against Al Ain and scoring a sumptuous free-kick in the process.

Speaking after Manchester City’s latest and final group game against Juventus, club captain Bernardo Silva was asked for his thoughts on the talents of Claudio Echeverri, particularly off the back of the Argentine’s excellent free-kick goal on matchday two of the Club World Cup.

“I’m a big fan of Claudio because he plays football in a similar way to the way I play; he has a lot of blood in his veins, fights for every possession, fights for every ball,” the Portuguese midfielder admitted.

He continued, “Then his talent does the rest. But what I like about Claudio is he’s a No.10 or second-striker and doesn’t give up; any possession, any ball, anything he can do to help, he’s there.

“He’s a fighter – I can see, we could all see – and we were all very surprised when he joined. So I’m a big fan of Claudio!”

Unfortunately for Claudio Echeverri and those wanting to see more of the former River Plate starlet at the ongoing Club World Cup, the midfielder sustained an injury problem in the 6-0 win over Al Ain.

Following further assessment from club medical staff, it was deemed necessary to support Echeverri with the use of crutches and a protective boot around the affected ankle and foot, ruling him out for up to three weeks.

That is likely to bring an end to his Club World Cup campaign, and it also remains to be seen whether Manchester City will choose to retain his services for the 2025/26 season, or whether it will be determined more effective to sanction a loan move into Europe.