Kelechi Iheanacho was a virtual unknown when, back in September, he came on to score a late winner as Manchester City continued their impressive start to the season at the expense of Alan Pardew's Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
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Kelechi Iheanacho was a virtual unknown when,
back in September, he came on to score a late winner as Manchester City
continued their impressive start to the season at the expense of Alan
Pardew’s Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
In a world where the Internet is ubiquitous and the highlights reel of any footballer is a YouTube search away, Pardew had no idea who his side’s tormentor was.
Asked at a post-match briefing if he knew who Iheanacho was, Pardew said: “No, if I’m honest. I had to look at his shirt to check who he was.” Iheanacho may be an immensely talented youngster, but surely Pardew wasn’t alone and many across the globe would have turned to their computers to get information about this new kid on the block. For the select few who had been following Iheanacho’s progress over the years, however, this was nothing new; just mere confirmation that, given the chance, the Nigerian would deliver.
Manuel Pellegrini is obviously one of the few who have seen Iheanacho’s development first-hand and, it was he who placed enormous faith in a scrawny 18-year-old when he brought him on late in the game at Selhurst Park. In fact, Pellegrini’s show of faith in the youngster began even before his game-altering cameo appearance at Palace; after all, Edin Džeko and Stefan Jovetić were both flogged to Italy in the summer to move Iheanacho up the pecking order.
“He’s just 18 and started working with our squad last season, but he
was unlucky and had a big injury in the last three months of the
season,” Pellegrini said in the September. “This year he started
pre-season with the squad and will be a very important player for the
future. He’s one of the reasons I didn’t bring another striker in when
we sold Edin Dzeko. He deserves that chance.”
A cynic may suggest Pellegrini’s failure to add another striker to bolster his squad was due to the unavailability of elite-level strikers in the market – as Arsenal and Chelsea found out – but four months later there is no doubt that his decision has been a roaring success.
Sergio Agüero, on his day, is the Premier League’s deadliest striker, a combination of guile and grace but rather unfortunately, those days don’t come around often, as muscle injuries have all too often inhibited him. 12 months after his £25m move from Swansea, Wilfried Bony still looks out of place at City and it would be of no surprise if City were to cut their losses at the end of the campaign. This shortage has seen Iheanacho afforded opportunities to shine, and boy, he’s taken it with resounding aplomb.
Saturday’s man-of-the-match performance in City’s 4-0 FA Cup demolition of Aston Villa was the latest instalment of The Iheanacho Show, as the Nigerian ran Villa ragged, scoring three and providing an acrobatic assist for Raheem Sterling to wrap up a perfect afternoon for Pellegrini’s men. The second was a penalty, and despite the presence of more established players on the pitch, Iheanacho was given the responsibility as a result of a direct order from Pellegrini. “I told Bacary to tell Iheanacho to shoot the penalty. I saw him do it everyday. He was in charge.” With 8 goals and 6 assists in just 613 minutes across all competitions, Iheanacho has truly been in charge this season.
As with every success story, there is a little known background story and Iheanacho’s rise to the bright lights of Premier League relevance began in humble surroundings in his native hometown of Owerri, southeastern Nigeria.
A graduate of Taye Football Academy, the youngster became a mainstay of Nigeria’s U17 side, the Golden Eaglets, as they finished runners-up to the Ivory Coast at the 2013 African U17 Championship held in Morocco, scoring four goals in five games. Iheanacho’s excellent displays in Morocco understandably went largely unnoticed to the wider world due to the cadet tournament’s lack of popularity and the buzz surrounding the young talent was limited mainly to his continent.
Nine months later, and with the world watching at Fifa’s much publicised age-grade competition at the United Arab Emirates, Iheanacho brought his A-game to the party, replete with an arsenal of tricks, flicks and goals. The Imo state native was the brightest star of the tournament, scoring six times and providing a further seven assists for his teammates as the Nigerians went on to win the competition for a then-record-equalling fourth time.
The Manu Garba-tutored side scored 26 goals in the Middle East; Iheanacho was involved in 13 of them. Unsurprisingly, he won the Golden Ball award and his six goals saw him finish as the second highest goalscorer. An outstanding 2013 finished with him taking home the Confederation of African Football’s most promising talent of the year award.
By this time scouts from around the world were aware of this
prodigiously talented youngster, with rumoured interest from a number of
clubs across Europe. Arsenal, Porto and Sporting Lisbon were all
credited with interest in him, and his progress duly followed.
Txixti Begeristain and Ferrer Soriano, as part of their briefs, were
tasked with improving the quality of City’s academy players and they
stole a march on their rivals by completing a deal for the Nigerian
youngster.
In December 2013, Iheanacho travelled to England to discuss a move to City; a pre-contract agreement was signed, with a formal one to follow on his 18th birthday in October 2014. Work permit issues delayed his start for City and the Citizens hierarchy mulled over the possibility of farming him out on loan to gain experience. That never came to fruition and when he was eventually granted a work permit, he suffered an injury just five minutes into his first game with Patrick Vieira’s elite development squad that would keep him sidelined for a couple of months.
On his return in April, Iheanacho scored in City’s 2-1 second-leg loss to Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup final. He also scored a brace as Vieira’s side defeated rivals Manchester United 3-1.
With injury and bureaucratic issues now behind him, Iheanacho was
included in City’s pre-season tour squad for the second consecutive
summer. The youngster scored twice and provided two assists, including a
delightfully weighted through-ball that sent Sterling on his way to
open his account for his new club, a pass so wonderful in its execution
that Mesut Özil would have been proud of it.
Back home in Nigeria expectations had reached fever pitch, with many calling for then-national team head coach Stephen Keshi to include him in the Super Eagles set-up. The call-up remained elusive but by the time Sunday Oliseh named his first squad upon taking over and Iheanacho was again left out, national team supporters called for Oliseh’s head. How dare he leave out the country’s golden boy, was the question on many lips across the country. A swift U-turn occurred in the hours that followed, Iheanacho was called up and everyone went home happy. “I initially called up 23 players but I am adding Kelechi Iheanacho to the list immediately,” Oliseh told the Nigeria Football Federation’s official website. “I have been following Kelechi’s progress at City.”
The last young player to elicit this much excitement in the oil-rich West African nation was a certain John Obi Mikel, who in 2005 rubbed shoulders with Lionel Messi, Ángel di María and Agüero at the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.
Given how Mikel’s career turned out (Mikel has had a respectable career but failed to reach the heights his fellow countrymen expected him to, especially as a bona fide successor for Austin “Jay Jay Okocha” in the national side), there is huge pressure on Iheanacho to be the Super Eagles’ creative hub and main man in years to come.
It is perhaps an unfair burden to heap on a player still nine months away from his 20th birthday, but Iheanacho appears battle-ready for the challenge, all tinkle-toed ingenuity and unparalleled vision. He is capable of operating in a variety of positions in the final third: playing behind the main striker in the hole, coming in from the wide areas, or leading the line himself, Iheanacho is as versatile as he is talented.
There’s always the threat of young players going off the boil after getting too much money too soon but those closest to Iheanacho all speak glowingly of his humility and desire to work hard every day in training. Iheanacho is also a devout Christian, a result of his puritanical upbringing. “God is the greatest,” he tweeted after his hat-trick heroics.
Manchester City are often accused of not blooding youngsters, and the Etihad is often, sometimes unfairly, regarded as the place where young talents go to die. Iheanacho is not a local Mancunian and he indeed came to Manchester at a price but he represents City’s brightest academy talent and the poster boy for the Abu Dhabi-owned side’s increasing emphasis on giving youth a chance. City and Nigeria hope the aptly named ‘Promise’ – his middle name – will be a crucial part of whatever success they achieve in the future and on the basis of his recent showings, they have no reason to worry about their highly rated youngster.
“I was criticised for not replacing Stefan Jovetić or Edin Džeko. That was because we had Kelechi,” Pellegrini said in the aftermath of Saturday’s game. Thanks to Iheanacho’s brilliance, Pellegrini’s critics will need a new stick to beat the Chilean manager with.
Iheanacho’s inclusion in City’s Champions League squad on Monday at the expense of the injured Samir Nasri is further testament to Pellegrini’s unwavering faith in the young Nigerian and he can expect to feature in the Citizens’ chase for an unlikely quadruple before Pep Guardiola takes over from the Chilean boss in July.
Iheanacho’s youth means he is an impressionable footballer, raw and still at that stage where he is open to learn and vastly develop, and there’s no better manager than Guardiola to mould a thrillingly brilliant young footballer into world-beater. Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Thiago Alcantara and many others have become world-class players after being plucked from the youth teams under the tutelage of Guardiola.
The former Barcelona boss could well improve the undoubtedly talented Iheanacho to the heights Nigeria and City are hoping for, making the Spaniards move to the Etihad a masterstroke in more ways than one.
In a world where the Internet is ubiquitous and the highlights reel of any footballer is a YouTube search away, Pardew had no idea who his side’s tormentor was.
Asked at a post-match briefing if he knew who Iheanacho was, Pardew said: “No, if I’m honest. I had to look at his shirt to check who he was.” Iheanacho may be an immensely talented youngster, but surely Pardew wasn’t alone and many across the globe would have turned to their computers to get information about this new kid on the block. For the select few who had been following Iheanacho’s progress over the years, however, this was nothing new; just mere confirmation that, given the chance, the Nigerian would deliver.
Manuel Pellegrini is obviously one of the few who have seen Iheanacho’s development first-hand and, it was he who placed enormous faith in a scrawny 18-year-old when he brought him on late in the game at Selhurst Park. In fact, Pellegrini’s show of faith in the youngster began even before his game-altering cameo appearance at Palace; after all, Edin Džeko and Stefan Jovetić were both flogged to Italy in the summer to move Iheanacho up the pecking order.
A cynic may suggest Pellegrini’s failure to add another striker to bolster his squad was due to the unavailability of elite-level strikers in the market – as Arsenal and Chelsea found out – but four months later there is no doubt that his decision has been a roaring success.
Sergio Agüero, on his day, is the Premier League’s deadliest striker, a combination of guile and grace but rather unfortunately, those days don’t come around often, as muscle injuries have all too often inhibited him. 12 months after his £25m move from Swansea, Wilfried Bony still looks out of place at City and it would be of no surprise if City were to cut their losses at the end of the campaign. This shortage has seen Iheanacho afforded opportunities to shine, and boy, he’s taken it with resounding aplomb.
Saturday’s man-of-the-match performance in City’s 4-0 FA Cup demolition of Aston Villa was the latest instalment of The Iheanacho Show, as the Nigerian ran Villa ragged, scoring three and providing an acrobatic assist for Raheem Sterling to wrap up a perfect afternoon for Pellegrini’s men. The second was a penalty, and despite the presence of more established players on the pitch, Iheanacho was given the responsibility as a result of a direct order from Pellegrini. “I told Bacary to tell Iheanacho to shoot the penalty. I saw him do it everyday. He was in charge.” With 8 goals and 6 assists in just 613 minutes across all competitions, Iheanacho has truly been in charge this season.
As with every success story, there is a little known background story and Iheanacho’s rise to the bright lights of Premier League relevance began in humble surroundings in his native hometown of Owerri, southeastern Nigeria.
A graduate of Taye Football Academy, the youngster became a mainstay of Nigeria’s U17 side, the Golden Eaglets, as they finished runners-up to the Ivory Coast at the 2013 African U17 Championship held in Morocco, scoring four goals in five games. Iheanacho’s excellent displays in Morocco understandably went largely unnoticed to the wider world due to the cadet tournament’s lack of popularity and the buzz surrounding the young talent was limited mainly to his continent.
Nine months later, and with the world watching at Fifa’s much publicised age-grade competition at the United Arab Emirates, Iheanacho brought his A-game to the party, replete with an arsenal of tricks, flicks and goals. The Imo state native was the brightest star of the tournament, scoring six times and providing a further seven assists for his teammates as the Nigerians went on to win the competition for a then-record-equalling fourth time.
The Manu Garba-tutored side scored 26 goals in the Middle East; Iheanacho was involved in 13 of them. Unsurprisingly, he won the Golden Ball award and his six goals saw him finish as the second highest goalscorer. An outstanding 2013 finished with him taking home the Confederation of African Football’s most promising talent of the year award.
Iheanacho was involved with 13 of Nigeria’s 26 goals at the U17 World Cup in 2013.
In December 2013, Iheanacho travelled to England to discuss a move to City; a pre-contract agreement was signed, with a formal one to follow on his 18th birthday in October 2014. Work permit issues delayed his start for City and the Citizens hierarchy mulled over the possibility of farming him out on loan to gain experience. That never came to fruition and when he was eventually granted a work permit, he suffered an injury just five minutes into his first game with Patrick Vieira’s elite development squad that would keep him sidelined for a couple of months.
On his return in April, Iheanacho scored in City’s 2-1 second-leg loss to Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup final. He also scored a brace as Vieira’s side defeated rivals Manchester United 3-1.
Iheanacho and Raheem Sterling linked up for Man City in the club’s pre-season tour last summer.
Back home in Nigeria expectations had reached fever pitch, with many calling for then-national team head coach Stephen Keshi to include him in the Super Eagles set-up. The call-up remained elusive but by the time Sunday Oliseh named his first squad upon taking over and Iheanacho was again left out, national team supporters called for Oliseh’s head. How dare he leave out the country’s golden boy, was the question on many lips across the country. A swift U-turn occurred in the hours that followed, Iheanacho was called up and everyone went home happy. “I initially called up 23 players but I am adding Kelechi Iheanacho to the list immediately,” Oliseh told the Nigeria Football Federation’s official website. “I have been following Kelechi’s progress at City.”
The last young player to elicit this much excitement in the oil-rich West African nation was a certain John Obi Mikel, who in 2005 rubbed shoulders with Lionel Messi, Ángel di María and Agüero at the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.
Given how Mikel’s career turned out (Mikel has had a respectable career but failed to reach the heights his fellow countrymen expected him to, especially as a bona fide successor for Austin “Jay Jay Okocha” in the national side), there is huge pressure on Iheanacho to be the Super Eagles’ creative hub and main man in years to come.
It is perhaps an unfair burden to heap on a player still nine months away from his 20th birthday, but Iheanacho appears battle-ready for the challenge, all tinkle-toed ingenuity and unparalleled vision. He is capable of operating in a variety of positions in the final third: playing behind the main striker in the hole, coming in from the wide areas, or leading the line himself, Iheanacho is as versatile as he is talented.
There’s always the threat of young players going off the boil after getting too much money too soon but those closest to Iheanacho all speak glowingly of his humility and desire to work hard every day in training. Iheanacho is also a devout Christian, a result of his puritanical upbringing. “God is the greatest,” he tweeted after his hat-trick heroics.
Manchester City are often accused of not blooding youngsters, and the Etihad is often, sometimes unfairly, regarded as the place where young talents go to die. Iheanacho is not a local Mancunian and he indeed came to Manchester at a price but he represents City’s brightest academy talent and the poster boy for the Abu Dhabi-owned side’s increasing emphasis on giving youth a chance. City and Nigeria hope the aptly named ‘Promise’ – his middle name – will be a crucial part of whatever success they achieve in the future and on the basis of his recent showings, they have no reason to worry about their highly rated youngster.
“I was criticised for not replacing Stefan Jovetić or Edin Džeko. That was because we had Kelechi,” Pellegrini said in the aftermath of Saturday’s game. Thanks to Iheanacho’s brilliance, Pellegrini’s critics will need a new stick to beat the Chilean manager with.
Pep Guardiola has a strong track record of nurturing young talent and Iheanacho is capable of becoming his next project.
Iheanacho’s inclusion in City’s Champions League squad on Monday at the expense of the injured Samir Nasri is further testament to Pellegrini’s unwavering faith in the young Nigerian and he can expect to feature in the Citizens’ chase for an unlikely quadruple before Pep Guardiola takes over from the Chilean boss in July.
Iheanacho’s youth means he is an impressionable footballer, raw and still at that stage where he is open to learn and vastly develop, and there’s no better manager than Guardiola to mould a thrillingly brilliant young footballer into world-beater. Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Thiago Alcantara and many others have become world-class players after being plucked from the youth teams under the tutelage of Guardiola.
The former Barcelona boss could well improve the undoubtedly talented Iheanacho to the heights Nigeria and City are hoping for, making the Spaniards move to the Etihad a masterstroke in more ways than one.
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