Rayan Cherki's Journey: From Substitute to Match-Winner for Manchester City
Rayan Cherki walked off the pitch at the Etihad on Sunday with two assists, three points and one lingering problem: he still isn’t a guaranteed starter for Manchester City.
He had begun the afternoon on the bench, arms folded, expression fixed. By full-time he had flipped the game on its head.
From sulking substitute to match-winner
Sent on against Bournemouth with City staring at defeat in Enzo Maresca’s first Premier League game in charge, Cherki played like a man with something to settle.
The impact was immediate. His corner was whipped into the perfect area, Marc Guehi attacked it and City were level. Then, deep into added time, Cherki supplied the moment of real class: a brilliantly constructed assist for Josko Gvardiol’s winner that turned an anxious debut for Maresca into a statement comeback.
The new manager knew how much he owed his French playmaker.
“He made an impact the other day,” Maresca told BBC Sport before Friday’s trip to Crystal Palace. “In terms of quality, he is a different player to the rest because he can give us moments when we struggle in the last third.
“He has the quality that we need, but it depends also on the game plan and the opponent that we play.
“There is no doubt he's going to help now and in the future. I am very happy with the way he is working.”
Relief for the coach, then. For the player, the feeling was more complicated.
A star on paper, a substitute in reality
Cherki’s numbers are hard to argue with. His contribution against Bournemouth took him to 12 assists from open play since the start of last season – more than any other Premier League player in that period.
Recognition has followed. On Tuesday night in Manchester, he was all smiles at the PFA awards, posing for photos and signing autographs after being named in the Team of the Year and shortlisted for the Young Player of the Year award.
Yet he still finds himself fighting for a permanent place in City’s starting XI.
Under Pep Guardiola last season, Cherki featured in 33 league games, but 14 of those came from the bench. Even on the international stage, surrounded by France’s wealth of attacking talent, he found himself on the fringes.
At the World Cup in the summer, he played only 124 minutes in total. His single start came in the third-place play-off against England, a nightmare of a first half that ended with France 4-0 down and Cherki substituted at the break. Clips later emerged of him appearing unhappy with Didier Deschamps on the touchline, feeding the narrative that his temperament can be as fiery as his talent is obvious.
Maresca doesn’t dispute that side of him.
“Rayan is quite a nice and clear boy, if he is not happy he wants to show it,” the Italian said after Sunday’s win. “If he's next to me and he's not happy, you all realise that he is not happy because he is doing anything just to show that he is not happy.”
The attitude question that never quite goes away
City knew what they were taking on when they signed Cherki from Lyon for £30m in June 2025. Inside the club, there were discussions about the risk.
In the recent City documentary on Amazon, chief executive Ferran Soriano admitted that not all the reports were glowing.
“The information on Cherki was not so positive, I will be very honest,” Soriano said. “Everybody knew about his abilities, but there was this idea that he was chaotic.”
Chaotic or not, his influence is becoming harder to ignore. As the final whistle blew against Bournemouth, cameras caught Maresca striding directly towards Cherki. The manager wrapped an arm around his shoulders and spoke at length, part embrace, part lecture.
What was said has stayed between them. When asked afterwards whether Cherki would be starting games soon, Maresca’s answer was brief and emphatic: “Absolutely, yeah.”
The battle inside the player
For all the data, the assists and the awards, Cherki’s biggest fight this season may not be with defenders or rival forwards. It may be with himself.
He is 23, already one of the most creative players in the league, yet still living in that uneasy space between indispensable and expendable. His cameo against Bournemouth has strengthened his case before the trip to Crystal Palace, but it has not settled it.
Maresca has made it clear that selection will come down to “the game plan and the opponent”. Cherki, with his flamboyance and flair, will have to show he can fit into any plan, against any opponent, without letting frustration spill over when his name is not on the teamsheet.
City know exactly what they have: a match-winner who wears his emotions on his sleeve. The question now is whether that emotion can fuel a season that finally forces his managers – at club and country – to stop seeing him as an option and start seeing him as a certainty.
