Rayan Cherki: The Rising Star at Lyon and City's Future

Sage still remembers the first time Rayan Cherki took over a game at Lyon. The touch, the vision, the arrogance on the ball – all of it was there long before the hype.

For him, the outcome was never in doubt.

Working with Cherki across Lyon's academy and first team, Sage said the teenager’s ceiling was obvious even as doubts swirled around him.

"It was a process with him, because a lot of people thought that he would not have success in his career. I did not have this same thought," Sage explained ahead of Friday's clash in South London. "I explained to him: 'You have a big talent, and I think you can show it in special contexts'. And he did that in his last game against Bournemouth."

That Bournemouth performance has sharpened the spotlight. City executives now see Cherki as the long-term heir to Kevin De Bruyne, the player chosen to carry the club’s attacking imagination into the next era.

Sage is not surprised. He watched Cherki bend games to his will as a teenager.

"You have to give something for the team defensively and keep your talent in attack," he said. "I had nothing to say to him offensively because he understood the play better than me."

So how do you stop a player like that?

"To control him, the best thing is to prevent all the passes to him, because when he has the ball he is able to do things we don't imagine."

Cherki has called his former coach a footballing genius. Sage flips that compliment straight back.

"I don't know the word for higher than a genius. I am not a genius; he is a genius," he replied. "To speak about something and to teach something is a step. But to do these things is another step. He is at this level. Maybe God?"

For City, that kind of reverence explains everything: why they are willing to wait, why they see him as the man to follow De Bruyne, and why Friday in South London already feels like another stage built for him.