City’s most promising young star, Kelechi Iheanacho, has left City fans wanting more after his heroics against Crystal Palace earlier on in the season. Looking towards a mid-week Capital-One Cup game tonight against Crystal Palace and the forward looks set to return for more game-time; here’s a profile on young Kelechi…
Profile
Signed from Taye Academy in Owerri, Nigeria, 6ft 1″ striker Kelechi Iheanacho was understood to cost Manchester City just £350,000. Taking the Nigerian team to the finals in the Under-17 World Cup, Kelechi was rumored to have gained the interest of Arsenal, Porto and even Manchester United, but, it was City who would end up penning the young man’s signature back in 2013.
Grabbing the attention of Manchester City, Iheanacho was merited as the player of the tournament and awarded the golden ball trophy for his international influence in 2013. Kelechi netted a hat-trick against Botswana and was on the score-sheet in the final which tallied his prominent tournament record to 6 goals and 7 assists.
After signing a pre-contract with the blues which stated he would join after he had his 18th birthday in October 2014, Kelechi returned to his home nation, Nigeria. At the end of the 2013/14 season, he was named as Confederation of African Football’s most promising young talent of the year.
Despite not being an official Manchester City player yet, he would go on to join Pellegrini’s team in their American pre-season tour ahead of the 2014/15 season. Without name and number on the back of his shirt, Kelechi was first introduced to Man City fans after his fantastic finish against Sporting Kansas and again later on in the week with another goal against Inzaghi’s AC Milan.
Iheanacho has spent the majority of this year playing for City’s elite development squad (EDS) under former-player Patrick Viera. Quick, confident on the ball and dominantly left-footed, watching Kelechi’s performances for the EDS squad is reminiscent of a young Daniel Sturridge. He went on to showcase these talents in an Under-21 Manchester derby when his special solo goal inspired a thrilling turnaround; picking the ball up in opposing territory and jinxing 2 United defenders before slotting the ball into the bottom left corner. He went on to score again, and the game finished 3-1 to the blues.
Backroom duo Soriano and Begiristian had to use their contracts at Barcelona to take Iheanacho to Spain in order to earn him his long-awaited work permit. However, unfortunately for City, this would not even help him and the dragging situation was only eventually resolved earlier this summer as Kelechi was officially announced as a Man City player.
Although Kelechi is only 18 years old, he does not yet qualify as a home-grown player. According to Barclay’s Premier League rules, a home-grown player must be 21 or older and have spent at least 3 years with a club in the English system. Iheanacho does fall short of the current rulings but in the long term will hopefully help the team meet the quota. Pellegrini has already declared his trust on the youngster;
“Kelechi will be a very important player in the future. I always trusted Kelechi because strikers are strikers and he knows how to score. Kelechi is a very young player, he just turned 18, but I believe in him – it’s not easy for him to play because he has Kun and Bony in front of him and they are very good players, but I think the way he continues improving working with the squad the whole week he will continue demonstrating why he’s an important player for this team”.
Again joining the senior team on another pre-season tour before the start of this season, Kelechi traveled to Australia to play in the International Champions Cup against Roma and Real Madrid. Setting up newly signed Raheem Sterling for City’s first goal and punishing a defensive mistake with a goal himself against Roma, Kelechi’s popularity among fans rose and he again impressed – although it would be the £49million man who grabbed most of the headlines that day.
In the Premier League squad for the first time against West Brom on the opening weekend, Kelechi would have to wait until the Watford match to make his first Premier League appearance – coming on for Sterling in the 89th minute.
Before his best moment in a City shirt, boss Pellegrini had apparently instructed him to “go out and score a goal”. Easier said than done, but, Iheanacho followed MP’s exact instructions and did just that – a fabulous goal that earned City a huge win at Crystal Palace.Highlighted by Alan Shearer on ‘Match of the Day’, Kelechi showed great, positive movement in the box by gambling on Nasri’s parried shot and pouncing on the ball before the Palace defenders.
After his heroics that day, Kelechi said;
“I’m happy; it meant the world for me to score the goal. I’m very grateful and I thank the manager for introducing me. It’s not easy; we have great players here, but I want to keep working hard. We are much stronger this season with quality players. We are going to go all the way”.
His attitude was admirable to say the least after such a vital goal earned City 3 points they never thought they’d get 5 minutes before the final whistle.
