Full article : Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki has been compared to a god by Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage, who coached the midfielder at Lyon. Cherki, 23, was one of four City players — alongside Nico O’Reilly, Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland — named in the 2025-26 PFA Team of the Year on Tuesday. After an impressive debut season at City, having joined the club from Lyon in the summer of 2025, Cherki began his 2026-27 campaign in the same vein. The France international came off the bench in City’s Premier League opener on Sunday, providing two assists to overturn a 1-0 deficit and ensure a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium. Cherki made his Lyon debut aged 16 in 2019 and was one of Europe’s brightest talents, but remained with Lyon for five full seasons before making the move to City. “It was a process with him (Cherki),” Sage said ahead of Palace welcoming City to Selhurst Park on Friday night, “because a lot of people thought that he would not have success in his career. I did not have this same thought. “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. “(At Lyon, I told him that) you have to give something for the team defensively and keep your talent in attack. I had nothing to say to him offensively because he understood the play better than me. “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.” Sage, 47, was previously Lyon’s academy manager before spending just over two years as the first-team head coach between November 2023 and January 2025. After being told that Cherki had described him as a genius, Sage said: “I don’t know the word for higher than a genius (describing Cherki). I am not a genius; he is a genius. “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 (is the way to describe him)?” Cherki joined City from Lyon in the summer of 2025 in a deal worth €36million (£30.3m; $41.18m) plus €6m (£5.1m; $6.9m) in add-ons. The attacking midfielder’s debut season saw him score 10 goals and provide 15 assists in 52 games as City won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup. Before joining City, Cherki progressed through Lyon’s academy and scored 29 goals and provided 46 assists in 185 appearances for the club. He has also scored two goals in 14 appearances for France’s national team and featured in six of the side’s seven games at this summer’s World Cup. While City won the first game of the Enzo Maresca era, Palace lost their first Premier League game under Sage, suffering a 2-0 defeat at Everton last Saturday.   submitted by   /u/Shroft [link]   [comments]