RAYAN CHERKI
Never mind that the attacking midfielder has spent just 16-and-a-half years on this earth, only made his debut for OL in October – when introduced for the last few minutes of a goalless Ligue 1 draw with Dijon – and has mainly been used as a substitute this season.
For the vast majority of French football observers, Cherki is indubitably the most promising young player in the country; a teenager with the sort of extraordinary technical gifts which come along once in a blue moon.
Emissaries from the Premier League and other top continental sides are already on the case of the Lyon-born son of Italian and Algerian parents, as are Real Madrid scouts. And if the
Cherki is the most promising young player in the country
rumours are true, the Spanish giants are likely to find themselves at the front of a very long queue. Cherki himself recently admitted in an interview with OLTV that Real was his dream club.
Anyone keen to see what the fuss is all about should immediately check out the highlights of Lyon’s 4-3 victory over Nantes in the Coupe de France in January. Every aspect of his performance that night was seeped in pure precocious class. Besides scoring twice and setting up the other two goals, he was nothing less than the beating heart of Lyon’s attacking operation, always demanding the ball, imaginative in his link-up work and masterfully choreographing the dance. He even found the time for a spot of ball-winning and to serve as one of the mediators when a full-scale brawl broke out late in the game.
Two footed, hard to dispossess and energetic, his number one asset is a talent to effortlessly manipulate the ball. He has no problem dribbling in the tightest of spots and can perforate any defence with his feints, shuffles and assorted trickery at high tempo. He is a mature boy too, having quickly learned that the rabid over-indulgence which was his stock in trade in Lyon’s junior sides is now off-limits in the first team.
A Lyon scout first spotted him playing in a local park and he has been on the club’s books since the age of seven, invariably competing with boys two or three years his senior.
And football is a family affair for the Cherki clan. His mother serves as his agent, his father is on the service staff at Lyon’s Groupama stadium, while his elder
brother Adam is part of the OL marketing team. A younger brother, Eden, plays for the club’s under-nines.
They certainly know how to churn out prodigies at OL. First Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa, Nabil Fekir and now Cherki. Remember the name.