Who is Carlos Borges: The Next Manchester City star?

The 18-year-old has impressed for the Cityzens' u-21 side this season

Since taking over in 2008, Manchester City have made significant investments in its youth programme, and Carlos Borges is their newest promising young player to keep an eye on.

Since his arrival, Pep Guardiola's team has dominated domestically, but his influence is also apparent across City's many junior squads.

Man City leads the Premier League 2 with 35 points after 17 games. The Under-21s team employs Guardiola's tiki-taka approach, but Borges' exceptional talent stands out.

The Portuguese winger, who is presently far ahead as the Premier League 2's leading scorer, clearly drew inspiration from Erling Haaland.

Borges has scored five more goals so far than any other player in the Premier League 2 with 14 goals in just 16 league games. Also, he has seven assists to his credit.

His great performance in the EFL Trophy and UEFA Youth League adds to his already impressive stats. The 18-year-old has 22 goals and 13 assists in 35 goal contributions across all competitions.

Family background and surge into a bright player

Carlos Borges, who was born in Sintra, Lisbon Area, first played football there. After a brief season-long stint at Sporting Portugal in the capital, he then joined the Manchester City Academy.

He advanced through all of the youth divisions there, regularly contributing goals and assists to the under-18 and under-23 teams as City claimed both national competitions between 2020 and 2022. In May 2021, he was recognised as Manchester City's Under-18 Player of the Year.

He made his Youth League debut towards the end of 2021, netting the lone goal in a 1-0 away pool victory over RB Leipzig.

He gained notoriety in September 2022 when he accomplished a hat trick and provided an assist in Man City's Youth League debut victory over Sevilla, 5-1. In the 3-1 victory away to Copenhagen a month later, he contributed with a goal and an assist.

The playing style of Carlos Borges

Borges has always been a dynamic winger who loves to dribble and take opponents on and has honed his skills in Manchester, where he began playing futsal. The City coaching staff has also set goals for the adolescent to meet, and he sets personal goals for goals and assists each season.

In a 4-3-3, he is most effective as a left winger. capable of dribbling at full speed and forming rapid combinations with his teammates. Very resistant to being knocked off the ball due to his low centre of mass and superb close handling

Although he can still do a lot to improve his defensive placement and dependability, he frequently tracks back to assist in the defensive phase and is able to dislodge opponents because of his explosiveness.