The versatile teenager is Pep Guardiola's new golden boy and looks set for a glorious future for club and country
It was Manchester City's first Premier League game after the 2022 World Cup, away to Leeds United. The starting XI looked familiar enough, featuring 10 players who had just appeared in Qatar. There was one exception though. Rico Lewis, who had only turned 18 the month before, was making his first league start.
Meanwhile, the highly experienced pair of Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker were on the bench. Both had gone deep at the World Cup, to the quarter-finals, but here they were, behind a kid who had only begun training with the first team the previous summer.
Lewis was eventually taken off for Cancelo when City were 3-0 up. But he was back in the line-up ahead of Walker and Cancelo again for the next game against Everton. Walker and Cancelo were restored for the following game at Chelsea, but both were hauled off at half-time at 0-0. Lewis was brought on and helped City earn a 1-0 win.
The humiliation grated away at Cancelo and he grew more and more irritated at losing his place in the team, leading to a furious spat with Pep Guardiola which saw him quickly loaned out to Bayern Munich, the first step of his eventual permanent departure to Al-Hilal. Walker, however, knuckled down and worked his way back into the team at Lewis' expense, becoming a crucial part of the team which won the treble before being named club captain.
Lewis continued to impress but ended up playing fewer minutes last season than in his breakthrough campaign. However, now the pattern has repeated itself and Lewis has pipped Walker's place again, not just for City but for England too.
Getty ImagesLocking it down
In similar circumstances to when he made his breakthrough into the City team, Lewis has seized the opportunity that his absence from a major tournament presented. When Walker walked out at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin for the Euro 2024 final against Spain, Lewis was sat at home alone, watching the game on television.
He had turned down the chance to watch the game with his friends in Manchester, partly out of fear of getting soaked in beer and partly because he wanted to watch the game from a tactical point of view and take it all in. Besides, he had to rest up ahead of City's pre-season tour of the US.
The States holds a special place in Lewis' heart as it was where he first made his mark for City's first team, coming off the bench against Club America and Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022. Back then he was 17 and so shy he sat down at the dinner table alone.
But this summer he was one of the most experienced players in a mostly youthful travelling squad as most of his team-mates had been involved in the Euros or the Copa America.
And since returning from the tour he has locked down his place in the team, playing 90 minutes in all four of City's games from the Community Shield to the 3-1 win at West Ham, when he played a starring role.
AdvertisementGettyTaking Walker's place
Walker joined up later with the squad after being given an extra week off by Guardiola and missed the Community Shield. However, he has been sat on the bench for all the Premier League games, only getting two minutes of action against West Ham. His lack of game time has cost him his place in the England squad for the first two games of the post-Gareth Southgate era.
Lewis has taken his place, getting recalled by his former under-21's manager Lee Carsley. "I wanted to put a mark on the squad. Kyle hasn’t played this season. City are phasing him in gently and we have to respect that," explained Carsley.
Guardiola also sought to lift Walker's spirits by assuring him he could get back into the England squad. "He is an incredible weapon for the national team because he has special qualities," he said.
"But it was late, he arrived back with a few niggles and some problems. There are many games for the national team as well and with his physicality he has a chance to come back, play well here and the option to play for the national team remains open."
Getty Images'Always free'
But Guardiola's choice of words was telling, especially compared with how he talks about Lewis. While the manager highlights Walker's physical traits, he uses higher praise when talking about the teenager.
"Have you seen the minutes he played in the pockets when Kyle came in? Rico has one incredible ability that for many years was difficult to find: always he is free," Guardiola said after the win at West Ham, in which Lewis set up Erling Haaland's second goal and nearly scored himself in a stunning opening 45 minutes by the champions.
"He is always alone. Whenever his mate has the ball, I don't know what he does but he is free. You can pass the ball to him and not just in a comfortable position but where the spaces are so tight. He arrives in the final third, he is a good defender, he gives continuity, he can play in two or three positions. He's playing well so he deserves to play."
The one thing holding Lewis back and in Walker's favour, Guardiola hinted, was that physical difference. The coach added: "But every three days he cannot sustain that, we need Kyle back, John [Stones] back and all the players ready because of the schedule that comes now until the end of the season."
Walker will be back, it seems, but he has his work cut out in wresting his starting berth back from Lewis once more. He is nearly two years older than when he regained his place in the treble winning season and there were a few signs during the Euros that his physical powers are ever so slightly waning. Lewis, meanwhile, is two years wiser and also physically stronger.
GettyLeading the evolution
Guardiola thought so highly of Lewis that he entrusted him to lead the team's tactical evolution during the treble winning season. City had lost their final game before the World Cup to Brentford and Guardiola was scratching his head as to how to make the team more solid now that they were accommodating Haaland, having played without a centre-forward the previous season.
Lewis was part of the solution, operating as a hybrid defender-midfielder, shuttling between right-back and holding midfield according to the situation of the game. Lewis' physical shortcomings ended up counting against him though and he lost his place back to Walker shortly after City were beaten 1-0 at Tottenham. In that game, Lewis got bullied by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Guardiola was annoyed with his more senior players for not backing the youngster up.
At a similar time, the manager publicly humiliated Walker by saying he was not capable of slotting into the new system and playing that hybrid role. He instead asked John Stones to do it from centre-back, and restored Walker to his usual role of right-back. Walker had the games of his life against Vinicius Junior in the Champions League semi-final tie with Real Madrid and in the top-of-the-table clash against Arsenal.
But Walker was then left out of the line-up for the Champions League final against Inter, highlighting his fragile status in Guardiola's eyes, even though he did come on for the final eight minutes. That snub led to him almost joining Bayern Munich, only for Guardiola to book out a high-end Japanese restaurant in Manchester's city centre and convince Walker, while eating the finest sushi, to sign a new contract. He gave him the captain's armband too.