Manchester City Boss Guardiola Set To Hand Third Nigerian Teenager Professional Debut

Published: January 23, 2019

Hamburg-born Nigerian starlet Felix Nmecha,18, is in line to make his professional debut for Manchester City in their Carabao Cup semi-final clash against Burton Albion on Wednesday evening.

Attacking midfielder Nmecha was in the traveling party to Burton and could feature in the dead rubber match.

If he steps out onto the Pirelli Stadium turf, he would be the third Nigerian teenager to be handed a debut by Pep Guardiola since his appointment as Manchester City coach in the summer of 2016.

Felix's elder brother, Lukas Nmecha, made his first-team debut for The Citizens against Leicester City in this same competition back in the 2017-18 season, aged 19 years and 7 days.

Highly-rated midfielder Tom Dele-Bashiru also came off the bench in the game against The Foxes on December 19, 2017, aged 18 years, 3 months and 2 days.

Felix Nmecha was a member of the match day squads against Hoffenheim (Champions League) and Leicester City (League Cup) this campaign but was not utilized off the bench in both games.

With Manchester City thrashing Burton Albion 9-0 in the first leg, Guardiola is likely to field some fringe players in today's tie.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : mancity.com