CITY Loan star Maffeo is a big-name hunter
CITY DEFENDER UPSET RONALDO... BY MARKING HIM OUT OF GAME
CITY youngster Pablo Maffeo has made his mark on Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
And his performances will surely have done the same for his manager Pep Guardiola.
The right-back is enjoying some impressive form on loan at Girona, though he admits he does not know where his future lies.
He is, however, sure of one thing that he has to grab his opportunity to shine on the La Liga stage with both hands.
And he appears to be doing just that.
After earning some warm words of praise from Messi after man-marking the Barcelona genius earlier this season, he sparked a less gracious response from Ronaldo when doing a similarly effective job on him during Real Madrid’s surprise defeat at the weekend.
The young Spaniard made five tackles, seven interceptions and a clearance as well as assisting Portu’s winner in the 2-1 victory.
But it was Ronaldo’s stroppy reaction to a dogged marking job that was most telling.
The former United man took a swipe at a Maffeo after he crunched into a tackle late in the game – and flounced off the pitch shortly afterwards without shaking hands. Job done. It was in contrast to Messi’s encouragement following the clash with Barcelona in September.
In a post-match interview, Maffeo revealed that Messi said to him: “’I’ve got you here for the whole game, haven’t I?’
“He asked me a couple of things, like if I was loaned by City and how old I was. It was all good.”
Maffeo, 20, was similarly levelheaded in his approach to handling Ronaldo, telling Marca before the game: “If I have to follow Cristiano across the pitch, then I will do so. “I will have no problem man-marking if the coach asks me to do this job.” He did just that, and his maturity and performance will not have gone unnoticed back at the Etihad.
City fans keen for the youngster to make the grade in Guardiola’s first-team squad were making their case in numbers on social media following his latest signal of intent. And Maffeo - who stood out in last season’s EFL Cup defeat to United knows what he has to do to try to achieve that after going out on loan to Girona for a third time.
He said: “Yes, it’s true that I’ve been on loan for three seasons, I’m a City player on loan to Girona and I’m flattered to be here.
“I played two games last year and it was something very special, I arrived there at 15 and it is a bad thing because you leave your family here. But it has its reward.”
On his future, he added: “I do not Pablo Maffeo know, that depends on the end of the season and depending on the performance, now it is true that it is very good and I want to continue like this. But football can change your life in two months.”