Rayan Cherki’s teammate pays ultimate compliment to Manchester City target | OneFootball

Lyon and France forward Alexandre Lacazette has rubbished negative preconceived notions about his club and international teammate Rayan Cherki, who is expected to join Manchester City this summer.

Cherki has been identified as Manchester City’s ideal replacement for Kevin De Bruyne, who has agreed a two-year move to Napoli after being told he has no future at the Etihad Stadium beyond the expiration of his current contract at the end of June.

Manchester City had been long pursuing the signing of Bayer Leverkusen and Germany winger Florian Wirtz but the 22-year-old prefers a move to newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool as talks progress over a fee.

Making his senior international debut for France last week, Cherki lit up the UEFA Nations League semi-final with a cracking goal and ludicrously good assist in a cameo that lasted less than 30 minutes – opening the floodgates of excitement amongst the Manchester City fanbase.

Cherki is understood to have agreed personal terms to sign a five-year contract at the Etihad Stadium and was awaiting a full agreement between Lyon and Manchester City to travel to England and complete his transfer – with such n agreement believed to have now arrived.

Pep Guardiola and co may not be around to greet what will be their third summer signing – following Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Ait-Nouri – as they jet off to the United States for the FIFA Club World Cup at the end of the week.

City fans have been licking their lips at the prospect of Cherki linking up with Erling Haaland in attack, with plenty of nerves calmed as there remained huge question marks over who would take over the creative baton from De Bruyne when the Belgian confirmed this would be his last season in sky blue.

Phil Foden struggled last season and there have been doubts over whether the England international can be a like-for-like replacement for De Bruyne in the longer run. However, there is reason to be excited in Manchester and Cherki’s Lyon and France teammate Alexandre Lacazette has pointed out just why.

In an interview with Le Parisien last week, Lacazette said: “What people might not know is that Rayan (Cherki) works really hard behind the scenes.

“He (Cherki) puts in a lot of extra training to stay fit and maintain a very healthy lifestyle. Before I met him, there were a lot of preconceived ideas about him — mostly negative, to be honest.

“A lot of questions too. From what I saw on TV, he (Cherki) was clearly a huge talent, and I kept wondering why he wasn’t getting more playing time.

“This 2024–2025 season has been incredible. It’s like something clicked in his (Cherki’s) mind over the summer; like he finally understood what he could bring to the team. The key factor, I think, was this mindset, ‘If I make the team shine, I’ll shine too’.”