Brahim returns as an enemy to the place that raised him as a footballer

Straight

There is a moving video of Foden and Brahim's first time in the Champions League that helps to understand the hug of more than 20 seconds that they gave each other last Tuesday after their last night of the European Cup, at the end of the grueling Real Madrid-Manchester match. City that faced them (3-3). The recording is from November 2017. The Englishman is still 17 years old, the Spanish just 18 years old, and Pep Guardiola has just given them their debut in the Champions League with City against Feyenoord (1-0). "An incredible experience. “I’m happy for Brahim,” Foden begins. “I'm happy for him,” continues the man from Malaga, his face still dotted with acne.

They had stepped on the summit together, after years of doing everything together. They went to the same school, St. Bede's, a Catholic school in south Manchester; They shared training sessions at the City academy, where Brahim, a few months older, paved the way; and then they spent many afternoons playing at the Spaniard's house. The old friends meet again tomorrow (9:00 p.m., Movistar) to finish settling the Champions League quarterfinals at the Etihad, the stadium that saw them as the first great batch of the new cityzen quarry: the boy from Stockport, the suburbs, fan from the cradle, and the talented Spanish pearl caught when he was just beginning to reach adolescence, and who became a half-English adult.

Brahim (Málaga; 24 years old) dazzled in the international youth tournaments that bring together scouts from half of Europe. Liverpool, Chelsea and United tried to persuade the family to move to England, but they ended up being convinced by the “Spanish aroma” of the new City that Ferran Soriano was building. The leap was astronomical for a family that did not speak “a single word of English,” with four girls younger than Brahim. But they saw it as an opportunity also for them, bilingual now. And the boy did not shrink: “He was the first to say: 'Come on, I'm going to be big,'” recalls a source close to the footballer.

The beginnings were very complex for the family. For Duina, the youngest, the one who suffered the most from the change, they organized a birthday party at home every two or three days. They did it for three months, until they understood that she had already adapted, when they stopped receiving calls from the school to pick her up early.

Football was easier for Brahim, although some bureaucratic difficulties delayed his participation in official matches. He trained and competed in tournaments and friendlies. He conquered from the beginning. “Brahim was talked about since he was born,” remembers Eduardo Álvarez Gil, first team physiotherapist between 2016 and 2020. “It was a shock when he left for England. You know that he is going to arrive no matter what. In Manchester, in three minutes of training you realized: this is the good one. He has a gift. And he works a lot.”

Still 15 years old, Manuel Pellegrini invited him to debut in training with the first team. He went fast, always under the shelter of his large family, with whom he went everywhere. “He lived in Malaga; being in Manchester”, describes Álvarez Gil.

Having just turned 17, in September 2016, Guardiola made him debut with the first team against Swansea in the League Cup. The following summer he already included it in the preseason. “They won't take me down from here anymore,” he said privately.

In the first team locker room, he found the protection of David Silva, who even confronted some veteran who used too much energy to stop Brahim's creativity. There he also entered with Foden, who usually settled in a corner. They debuted together in the Champions League, and Guardiola gave them a few minutes in the last Premier League match, still undecided, in which reaching 100 points was still at stake. But they needed to appear in a fifth game to be considered league champions.

In the summer the club offered him a move to Girona, with the same ownership, but that was not yet what it is now. He looked for more, discarded the suggestion and his romance with City began to cool. Until in the winter market he signed for Real Madrid and began the journey, still with some curveballs, that will return tomorrow to the Etihad as a rival of his friend Foden, who persisted until he became an essential piece for Guardiola.

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