By Toby Prince
On the day £55million new boy, Kevin de Bryune, made his debut, it was the little known Kelechi Iheanacho who grabbed all the plaudits.
Manchester City coach, Manuel Pellegrini, has hailed the impact of the Nigerian youngster, calling him an “important” player in his squad.
The 18-year-old scored the winner in stoppage time as City maintained their unbeaten run in the league – his first ever goal in English football.
And the tactician who plucked him from Taye Academy in Nigeria has this to say:
“He is a very important player for us. 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.”
City offloaded Edin Dzeko, Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic to As Roma, Valencia and Inter Milan respectively during the summer, with Sergio Aguero and Wilfred Bony the only recognised strikers at the club.
The Chilean now revels that the youngster was part of the reason he allowed the star trio leave the Etihad without any replacement.
“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.
“I told him to go and score a goal. I was going to make the substitution before, because Bony had only worked the last few days with the team, but he told me he was okay. That’s why I kept him on, but Iheanacho deserved more minutes. It was important he took that chance.”
Unlike his counterpart, Crystal Palace coach, Alan Pardew, claims not to have any previous knowledge about the young man who ripped him team apart.
“I don’t know much about him at all. In fact I had to look on his shirt to see who he was,” a beaten Pardew said.
Now the Englishman knows of a certain 18-year-old Nigerian whose first touch inflicted the first defeat of the season on his team.
According to Squawka.com, Iheanacho has scored once, created once and also possess an impressive 100 per cent shot and pass accuracy in two appearances for the Citizens.
