The playmaker's relationship with his new boss will be fascinating to watch after being plagued by accusations of an attitude problem
Whenever footballers talk to the media, the club's press officer is hoping they will say as little as possible and ideally stay out of the headlines. As Peter Crouch put it: "You're doing an interview for the newspaper but you're trying not to be in the newspaper. They were so nervous about you putting your foot in it."
Rayan Cherki opted for a very different approach when speaking to journalists for the first time since joining Manchester City. In just a five-minute exchange with reporters in Florida as City were preparing for their opening game at the Club World Cup, he left a real impression.
He outlined his ambitions to win the Ballon d'Or, saying Rodri's success in 2024 showed him that City offered a platform to become the best player in the world. And, in a statement that immediately endeared him to his new club's supporters, he said he wanted to "kill" Manchester United after Lyon's painful Europa League defeat to the Red Devils in April. Before that quarter-final tie, incidentally, he said he was "ready to go to war" with Ruben Amorim's side.
Cherki's opening statements would not have surprised anyone who has followed the Frenchman's career. He has always looked to make a mark and often has done, having become Lyon's youngest-ever goal-scorer at the age of 16 before more than one coach complained about his attitude, which was regarded as his biggest obstacle to progress.
Still, Cherki can do remarkable things on the pitch, and last season finally found the consistency he craved, contributing to 34 goals in 44 appearances. His uptick in productivity led to his long-awaited first call up to the France senior team and he marked his debut against Spain by setting himself up to score a tremendous volley in the Nations League semi-finals.
That form has also earned him a move to one of the top clubs in the world, and now Cherki has the chance to showcase his talent on the world stage. His audacious comments merely confirmed his reputation as a maverick, but the big question now is: Will this ultimate individual be able to thrive under Pep Guardiola?
GettyStreet player to 'rest station'
Cherki's signing for City immediately led to comparisons with when Jack Grealish arrived at the Etihad Stadium for a Premier League-record transfer fee of £100 million ($135m) as a frighteningly talented playmaker, only to have all his creative tendencies stamped out of him by Guardiola.
Grealish was heralded as a street footballer at Aston Villa, but at City he has been given the rather less flattering description of 'the rest station'. His role under Guardiola has primarily been to hug the touchline with the ball and hold on to it so the team can reset and his team-mates can get forward to progress the move.
The treble-winning season of 2022-23 was Grealish's only good campaign out of four at the Etihad Stadium, and now he is seen as an outcast having been left out of the Club World Cup squad to try and find a new club after starting just seven Premier League games this past season, before not getting on the pitch for the FA Cup final as he was overlooked for teenage debutant Claudio Echeverri at Wembley. Grealish was also the victim of some less than complimentary comments from Guardiola, who revealed publicly that Savinho was in better shape than the England international.
AdvertisementGetty Zlatan's refusal to conform
Cherki's arrival at City has also led to thought of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's disastrous season under Guardiola at Barcelona. The Swede famously lambasted the Catalan's methods in his autobiography, likening the atmosphere Guardiola had created within the squad to a school. Ibrahimovic simply did not fit in and did not want to follow his coach's orders to behave and conform. It all came to a head after Barca were knocked out of the Champions League semi-finals by Ibrahimovic's former club Inter, after which the striker told Guardiola "You have no balls."
In his revealing autobiography, 'I Am Zlatan'Ibrahimovic wrote: "I had done a lot to adapt – the Barca players were like schoolboys, following the coach blindly, whereas I was used to asking ‘Why?'. I like guys who run red lights, not pedantic and strict rules. I tried to be overly nice, didn’t dare lose my temper.
"But after this I stopped trying to adapt. For example, at Barcelona, players were banned from driving their sports cars to training. I thought this was ridiculous – it was certainly not the club’s business what car I drive – so in April, before a match with Almeria, I drove my Ferrari Enzo to training and it caused a scene. When you buy me, you are buying a Ferrari. If you drive a Ferrari, you put premium petrol in the tank, you hit the motorway and you step on the gas. Guardiola filled up with diesel and took a spin in the countryside. He should have bought a Fiat."
Watch every FIFA Club World Cup game free on DAZNStream nowGetty 'Not a special player'
Cherki has not yet scaled the heights that Grealish and Ibrahimovic had before they linked up with Guardiola, but there have been several instances of the ex-Lyon man having a Diva-esque attitude which could lead to him running into problems with his new boss at some point.
In his breakthrough season with Lyon in 2019-2020, Cherki demanded to return to the youth team in protest at being left on the bench for a Ligue 1 game against Bordeaux. But he did not play well when back in the academy ranks, and his own father was heard shouting at him: "If you don't want to play, get off the pitch."
Rudi Garcia, the coach who gave Cherki his debut, warned early on about the danger of him getting carried away by the hype that was building around him. He said: "We all keep telling him that he will have the career he deserves if he continues to work. The danger is to make him believe that he is already one of the best players on the planet."
Garcia's successor, Peter Bosz, had no interest in paying Cherki special attention and used him sporadically during his tenure. "I know that Cherki is very popular, it's great for him and for the fans," he explained. "I choose my players to win the match every week. If I see that we can win with Rayan he will start, otherwise it will be another player."
Laurent Blanc revealed he had "some heated discussions" with Cherki over his tendency to play for himself rather than the collective, but Fabio Grosso proved to be the most critical of the playmaker, saying: "He's a player, not a special player. He's a player like any other, albeit with some additional qualities. But it’s not just technical qualities that matter; there are mental and athletic qualities as well."
AFPSilencing the critics
Cherki began to really show his worth under Grosso's successor Pierre Sage, albeit after a spell on the fringes of the Lyon team and then another period of being left out at the start of last season amid a contract stand-off with the club. He made a typically emphatic return to action by scoring a few minutes after coming off the bench against Marseille, the start of a run of five goals and seven assists between September and December. When Sage was eventually sacked in January, Cherki paid him an emotional tribute, saying: "He leaves behind an exceptional legacy."
Cherki also showed leadership under his final boss at Lyon, Paulo Fonseca. The Portuguese was slapped with a nine-month touchline ban in domestic matches for confronting a referee, and in their next match, against FCSB in the Europa League, Lyon's players mobbed Fonseca. Cherki said afterwards: "We felt a sense of injustice before the match, we wanted to give everything for him." He backed up those words by notchin five goals and 15 assists in 19 matches under Fonseca.
Cherki certainly believes he has knuckled down in the last few years and worked on the areas of his game that were previously lacking: "I think I had the best season of my career, I managed to make people talk only about good things: my passes, dribbling. I don’t hear many people talking about the unfounded criticism I faced. I think I took a step forward in all aspects: my efficiency, defensive work, efforts without the ball. Everyone knows my offensive style, dribbling, passing. That’s not what I worked on most, I instead worked on knowing what I wanted to become, which makes the difference."