Man City have secured England’s answer to Iniesta & he’s already tormenting his elders for fun

What were you doing at 15? Because I was spending my weeks putting hours into FIFA and Call of Duty between homework and playing football on a weekend, unaware of the fact that my dreams to magically become professional were already over.

While there was certainly an art to solving equations and completing history essays between rounds of Search and Destroy or while waiting for 100k packs to launch on Ultimate Team, it wasn’t quite what we all wanted in our teens.

Training twice a week and playing on a Sunday morning, while there wasn’t an outright belief that there was still a chance to somehow be scouted by an academy and embark on a journey to stardom, there was a youthful ignorance that dreams do come true.

Ignorance is bliss. Until reality hits.

Fast forward a year, the teenage hormones are flowing and the reality hits that you’ve probably nailed too many Chicago Town pizzas and ultimately never been anywhere near good enough in the first place to as much as be invited to a professional academy for a tour of the building.

Suddenly, training a few times a week is more than enough to keep you happy – sometimes even too much – and those Sunday morning games are a treat at the end of a week filled with exams, revision and the general throws of being a teenager.

Fifteen-year-old Finlay Gorman cannot relate to any of the above. Certainly not when he’s about to sign for Manchester City for a seven-figure fee from Leeds United, despite not even having thought about his GCSEs yet.

Gorman was born in – you’ll want a sick bag to hand for this – 2008 and has already debuted in the under-18 Premier League, setting a record by doing so aged 14 years and 326 days.

On top of that, he’s already turning out for England at under-16 level and moves around a football pitch with the ball at his feet like a 20-year career veteran.

It’s no surprise, then, that the top clubs in the country have been sniffing around Gorman. Leeds will have accepted that inevitability the minute he started showing superhuman promise.

And while the laws in the UK game do little to help them keep hold of their most prized asset since Archie Gray’s emergence, City coughing up a seven-figure sum certainly soothes the pain.

Seven figures. That’s insane. He’s just 15.

When you watch what he can do with a ball, however, and begin to envision the potential, it all starts to fall into place.

🌟 Manchester City have reportedly agreed a seven-figure fee for 15 year-old Leeds United starlet, Finley Gorman.

This lad is seriously talented…@City_Xtra | #MCFCpic.twitter.com/XdAIbCvTHA

— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) November 13, 2023

An absolute magician when gliding around with the ball. Mindblowing how naturally it comes to him.

Watching how he’s able to retain possession and dictate play with pings into spaces we didn’t think existed, it’s abundantly clear to see why City were so desperate to snap him up.

The scariest thing is when watching Gorman, you can already visualise him keeping possession ticking over in that Pep Guardiola side. Absurd.

It feels like watching Andres Iniesta all those years back, rolling in and out of gaps and tying defenders up in knots before slicing the lines open with a killer ball.

Potential is one thing, but fulfilling it is an entirely different beast. Especially when carrying the weight of being British football’s most expensive 15-year-old on your back.

The hard work is just about to start for Gorman, but with such a promising profile, the young attacking midfielder has every chance of making it stick at City.

He feels tailor-made to the club right now.

By Mitch Wilks

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