It didn’t take Christian McFarlane (Basildon, England, 2007) 1,000 minutes to sign for Manchester City. The young English full-back, a U18 international with the ‘Three Lions’, will join the team led by Pep Guardiola soon. This is reported by ‘Sky Sports’. He arrives from a ‘sister club’ like New York City.
He made his MLS debut earlier this year, also playing in Leagues Cup… and his performances attracted the attention of several high-profile European clubs. City, however, has not hesitated to short-term this young man who, at the age of 3, moved to the United States with his family.
McFarlane will turn 18 on January 25, and will initially be part of Manchester City’s ‘Elite Development Team’ in their youth system. It is a signing that ‘The Athletic’ already reported in March of last year, and that was confirmed again in the summer. However, until he came of age he would not leave the United States. That was decided within the City Football Group.
“Now he is a more developed 17-year-old with enormous potential to continue developing, and that is why we see the interest in him from teams across Europe,” said David Lee, NY City Sports Director, to the ‘ NY Post’ in the past.
He has enormous potential to continue developing, and that is why we see the interest in him from teams across Europe.
David Lee, Sports Director of NY City
He added: “You also see a player who has fantastic attributes to play at a really high level in his career. It’s up to us and Christian to try to develop those attributes and prepare him so that if those opportunities arise, whether it’s in our first team or another, he is ready to take advantage of them.
In the long term, McFarlane could occupy a position in which Pep Guardiola has always had ‘holes’, having to adapt players to that role: the case of Gvardiol and Aké now or Zinchenko in his day.
