Cherki is creator who can light up Premier League with Man City

Rayan Cherki was just a boy when Lyon’s former academy director Jean-Francois Vulliez asked him about his targets. The reply? To win the Champions League and the Ballon d’Or. Vulliez laughs at the memory. “It showed his ambition,” he tells Sky Sports.

Now 21, and being targeted for a Premier League move by Manchester City, Cherki will no doubt believe he is taking the next step towards achieving his goals. There are still plenty of points to prove. But he joins as one of the most electrifying players in Europe.

He underlined his extraordinary potential with a blistering debut off the bench for France in their wild 5-4 Nations League defeat to Spain in Stuttgart on Thursday. His side 5-1 down within minutes of coming on, Cherki almost sparked a comeback for the ages.

A stunning goal and an assist to match in his first appearance for his country will do nothing to quell the hype about a player whose big ambitions seem a little less lofty by the day. City will be eager to get the deal done because the secret is well and truly out.

Cherki has had some season with Lyon. The most creative player in French football, he topped those same charts in the Europa League this past season, tormenting Manchester United at Old Trafford with his outrageous trickery and touch.

In a sport where even the best are taught to function as part of the whole, Cherki retains that individual streak, that desire to have fun on the football pitch. He is a natural showman. Art for art’s sake. Let’s hope Pep Guardiola sees that as a super strength too.

“When he was very young, it was incredible,” recalls Vulliez. “Every day, every training session, he would be dribbling past opponents and wanting to score.” For Cherki, it was not so much one against one. “More like one against two! It was just in his DNA.”

Thierry Henry, who coached Cherki for France’s under-21 team, once said that he had never seen a player dribble at such speeds with both feet. It is not that he is lightning quick, more that he barely breaks stride when moving with the ball under his spell.

“We still do not know if his best foot is his right or left.” In truth, he tends to favour the left but his shot with his right foot is explosive. “At seven, eight, nine, it was the same.” In other words, it was not something he had to work on. “He could always play with both.”

This was a precocious talent. In the Lyon first team by the age of 16, he was seven months from his 17th birthday when he scored two and assisted two more in a win over Nantes. Even Kylian Mbappe had to wait longer than Cherki to make such an impact.

“He was promoted early because he was physically mature. Also, it was difficult for us to find good opposition to help him to improve his level. He was playing under-17 football at 14. It was too easy for him. We had to find the right level for him to improve.”

On one level, he adapted swiftly. “He is not shy,” laughs Vulliez. “In the dressing room, he found it easy to talk to players like Alexandre Lacazette even as a young teenager. He has good communication skills, very confident in himself and very solid mentally.”

The problem was that fast-tracking Cherki in this way brought challenges on the pitch. “Psychologically, he was not ready to play,” admits Vulliez. “Everything happened so fast and at the age of 16 he did not know what professional football was. He was a kid.”

This is part of what makes Cherki’s story so interesting – there is an arc to it. It would be easy for Premier League audiences to assume this is just the next logical step for a 21-year-old France international after a breakthrough year – and there is some truth to that.

But the progress has not been linear and Cherki has overcome criticism of his physique and mentality. There have been dips, time outside of the team, and all the frustrations that brings. “Over the years, he has shown resilience because it was not easy for him.”

He explains: “There were a lot of people who were trying to smash him, you know. And because he was so young, the fans did not understand when he lost the ball many times during games. It was all just another step on the journey for him to learn and to improve.”

Vulliez has seen that whole journey, even taking charge of the senior side for one Lyon game. Cherki played the full 90 minutes that day. “He was always respectful but he could be emotional. He did not understand when he had to go to the bench,” he says.

“That was a little bit tough. But it was because he wanted to win every time, he wanted to play every time, he wanted to score every time. He was an offensive player. But it was difficult for him to make the defensive effort. He thought everyone had to run for him.”

According to those close to Cherki, this is the big change in his game. On the face of it, it is his attacking output that has been transformed this past season. As well as those astonishing creative numbers, his goal output is more than double his total in any prior campaign.

But it was his understanding of the other side of the game, finding a way to contribute without the ball, that was always questioned. Cherki’s pressing numbers are still not high, but there is a feeling that he has learned how to do enough to help the team.

“That is the biggest step that he has made. Now, he is able to make the defensive run as well as the offensive run. Before, he would just think that because he was the team’s best talent, they should just give him the ball, he would score and they would win.

“Now, he is able to understand that he has to play for the team, not just himself, and that way he can help the team to win. That was always the last step, not the technical side or the intelligence side, his understanding of the game, but the defensive side of it.”

Crucially, this has not compromised his attacking output but unleashed it. It has earned him more minutes, more chances to impress, although it is interesting that United only staged their late comeback in April after Cherki had been substituted.

In terms of his attacking game, it has matured. “He was always very skilful,” says Vulliez. “But he was very focused on the duels, one against one. The main thing for him was to find the balance of when to dribble and when to pass.” That passing is now a major asset.

Cherki sees things others do not. What is more, he has so many different ways of executing that pass too, whether it is flicks or tricks, dummies or nutmegs, la croqueta or the Marseille turn, everything is in the arsenal to buy him the space that he needs.

“It is not just his technical ability, he is very clever. He is able to make a blind pass, to read the space, to find the assist, to cause an imbalance to the opponent’s team. He has many capacities. And this is the year in which he has been able to do it consistently.”

Eleven assists. Twenty-two big chances created. Thirteen through-balls completed. Forty-eight successful dribbles. And that is just in Ligue 1. Special numbers. “Special dribbles, special passes, special goals,” adds Vulliez. “He has made a big step.”

Through it all, that sense of fun remains part of his appeal. After all, this is a player who once lamented the lack of entertainers in the game, almost styling himself as a one-man antidote. “He has even invented some technical moves of his own,” says Vulliez.

But there is a seriousness to Cherki now, a clarity about what it takes to progress his career. He is employing personal coaches to help make the best of himself – physically, mentally and tactically. He has shown his quality at Lyon. He looks ready to do it for City.

“It is a very good challenge for him. Yes, it is a big step to the Premier League but I think that he is able to do it because there is still the room for him to improve. The nervous system needs to be stimulated and can continue to improve until the age of 24 or 25.”

One of the big issues for the erstwhile Premier League champions this past season was their predictability in attack. Cherki is different. He can unlock defences. “When Pep Guardiola takes a player, he knows beforehand how he can use them,” argues Vulliez.

Cherki can play out wide, particularly from the right, but his long-term preference is to be trusted with that No.10 role. “He can play in different positions and now I think he is able to understand what the coach wants and how to adapt to the plan of that coach.”

That will be the test. Will this maverick, capable of magic, be subsumed by City’s system or simply stifled by it. The hope is that it will not just be fun to find out but that it will still be fun to watch Rayan Cherki in full flow, limited only by his own imagination.

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