Who Is Nico O'Reilly? Man City's Breakout Star Could Start For England At 2026 World Cup

Manchester City hoped, and may even have expected that a midfielder called Nico would transform their fortunes during the second half of last season. The man that has become key to Pep Guardiola’s side’s mid-season surge and made them contenders to pull off the quadruple is not, however, the gangly Nico Gonzalez, who was recruited from Porto for £50 million last January, but rather academy graduate Nico O’Reilly, who cost nothing at all.

The 20-year-old boyhood City fan from north Manchester was an unlikely candidate to become so instrumental to the team's resurgence for three key reasons.

O'Reilly was a homegrown player, and they rarely get many consistent opportunities in the City first team beyond the obvious examples of Phil Foden and Rico Lewis. He also suffered a serious ankle injury at the crucial stage of his development, forcing him to undergo surgery and miss the bulk of the 2023-24 campaign.

O'Reilly eventually came into the first team as a makeshift left-back and, in his own words, was learning on the job after spending most of his youth career as an attacking midfielder. You wouldn't have known that from watching him, though, and after nailing down that defensive role for 12 months, he has now begun to produce even more impressive displays in a more natural role.

(AFP)

O’Reilly had made headlines in City’s academy for his eye-catching goals, which included a scorpion kick against Middlesbrough and a 40-yard lob against Manchester United. That goal-scoring prowess became his secret weapon when feeling his way into Guardiola’s side as a left-back last season, as he bagged five times while providing two assists as he proved particularly important to City reaching the FA Cup final and recovering from a horror