Corentin Tolisso is sat in the press room at Old Trafford on Wednesday night scrolling through his phone and smiling.
He’s waiting for Lyon’s press conference to start as hushed conversations in the room focus on the surprise in England at the level of 21-year-old superstar Rayan Cherki.
It was Cherki’s last-minute goal, helped in no small part by an error from Andre Onana, that has set up Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final perfectly at 2-2.
‘If they discovered Rayan last week, it’s because they haven’t watched much football in recent months,’ Tolisso laughed.
‘Rayan has done things that have been making the rounds on social media for a while. I hope that after the match, they’ll know Rayan even more and hate him even more!’
You can make a strong argument right now that no young player in Europe is playing as well as Cherki.
Lyon 21-year-old superstar Rayan Cherki could be the best young player in Europe right now
Cherki equalised against Man United last week and could haunt them again at Old Trafford
Cherki arrives at Old Trafford having scored nine goals and provided 18 assists in 36 matches
He arrives at Old Trafford with nine goals and 18 assists in 36 games this season across all competitions at club level. Nobody has more assists in the Europa League than Cherki (8) while he is tied in Ligue 1 alongside Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola and FC Nantes’ Moses Simon.
Against England Under-21s in Lorient recently he had two assists inside seven minutes and added a goal of his own before the night was out. He toyed with England like an adult against children.
But the prism with which Cherki has long been viewed under is that his flaws are magnified more than his obvious god-given strengths.
Why, many have asked, has no elite club moved to get him if he is a ‘genius’ as team-mate Ainsley Maitland-Niles put it?
‘There was no other big club interested in Cherki before now because of his performances,’ Le Progres reporter Arnaud Clement told Mail Sport.
‘He’s been really impressive on a technical level since his childhood, but previously he had so much waste in his game.
‘Only since the beginning of this season has he been really decisive and so important for Lyon in every game.’
Cherki was a footballing phenomenon in every sense of the word when he burst onto the scene in his early teenage years.
Cherki toyed with England Under-21s like an adult against children in Lorient last month
He burst onto the scene in his teenage years and was Lyon’s youngest scorer at the age of 16
Cherki visited Old Trafford and Carrington as a 15-year-old but Man United did not strike a deal
His street football style was unorthodox and caught the eye of scouts and on social media, where he soon became a star in his own right. Manchester United courted him when he was just 15.
At 15 he was quickly accelerated to Lyon’s U19s, where he became the youngest scorer in the Youth League (15 years and 33 days at the time). Lyon also included him in first team training session. By 16 he became Lyon’s youngest-ever goalscorer.
L’Equipe waxed lyrical of Cherki’s genius and wrote at the time that ‘Manchester United is under the spell of the 15-year-old player’.
Some of the Cherki entourage met with United officials and got a look at facilities at Old Trafford and Carrington.
But that was 2019 and, with no deal struck, Cherki remained in the south of France where criticism, as much as adulation, would tell the tale of a career that has been laced with cynicism.
Heading into this season, many saw Cherki as a player wasting his talent. Lackadaisical in his defensive work; often trying tricks while down to walking pace; not getting enough goals and assists. Others pointed to his attitude as a stumbling block to him making it at the top level.
One historical example saw Cherki react poorly to being benched in a league match against Bordeaux, so much so that he demanded to be sent back to the youth team by way of protest. Even his own dad was left bemused by the strop.
Rudi Garcia, the man who kickstarted Cherki’s career at Lyon but one of his six coaches he’s worked for, sent a warning to his successors about the maverick that is Cherki.
Cherki has remained at Lyon but has received criticism as well as adulation so far in his career
Prior to this season, some viewed Cherki as wasting his talent with criticism of his attitude
Former Lyon coaches Peter Bosz and Fabio Grosso were blunt in their assessments of Cherki
‘We all tell him that he’ll have the career he deserves, provided he keeps working,’ Garcia said before he departed, ‘the danger is making him believe that he’s already one of the best players in the world.’
Peter Bosz was a touch more blunt when it came to why Cherki was not an established starter under him.
‘I know Rayan is very popular,’ Bosz said. ‘It’s good for him and for the fans. But I choose my players to win. If I think I can win with Rayan, he’ll play. If not, it will be someone else.’
Fabio Grosso, another of his Lyon coaches, albeit only for seven games, was the most scathing of all.
‘He’s a player, not an exceptional player,’ Grosso said bluntly. ‘He’s a player like any other, with certain additional qualities. But technical qualities are not enough: there are also mental and physical aspects. He has enormous technical talent, but he needs to work on the rest.’
For team-mate Alexandre Lacazette, who had heard all of this noise over the years, here was a young player he felt needed an arm around the shoulder, rather than another critique, to get the best out of him.
‘I wondered what was going on with him because I saw his talent and I heard a lot of things about him that I didn’t understand,’ Lacazette said last year.
‘When in fact, he’s just a player who needs help, to be talked to, to be told what he should do most and perhaps do a little less.’
Alexandre Lacazette believes Cherki needed an arm around the shoulder rather than criticism
Lyon owner John Textor called on Cherki to get a new agent last year, advice the star followed
Cherki is now represented by one of France’s most powerful agents ahead of a possible move
Cherki’s inner circle has been a source of great frustration in France.
Previously he was managed by former journalist, Bilel Ghazi, who has close links to the mother of Kylian Mbappe. It was a partnership that had Lyon’s ownership furious more often than not.
Last summer, with just one year remaining on his deal and interest from Borussia Dortmund, Ghazi tried to land Cherki a new deal at Lyon and so met with owner John Textor. Less than 48 hours after the meeting the details had been leaked.
‘Ah Bilel, you cost me 20 Euros!’ Textor posted on Instagram. ‘I bet the guys that it would take you at least 48 hours to leak our chat and distort our proposal into a propaganda piece. We love Rayan, [and] will offer a new contract… he should stay a while! #NewAgentPlease.’
Cherki, who penned a 12-month extension through to 2026, heeded Textor’s advice because from October he did have new representation, another nod to the potential of landing a move away come the summer.
The 21-year-old has teamed up with one of France’s ‘super agents’ in Moussa Sissoko.
He is widely seen as one of the most powerful agents in France, working with star players such as Dayot Upamecano, Desiré Doué or Ousmane Dembele.
‘You know like me that after such a change, most of the time, it’s followed by a transfer,’ Clement adds.
Lyon boss Paulo Fonseca said Cherki is having a ‘great moment’, praising his technical ability
Cherki will look to hurt Man United in Europa League, but the Red Devils are a possible suitor
Europe’s elite clubs, including Liverpool, could activate a £25m release clause this summer
‘Due to his big performances this season, and the financial problems of Lyon, the probability to see him stay for another year in his town look weak.’
So at Old Trafford he pitches up, one of the potential landing spots for him this summer, with the lights as bright on him as they have ever been. Now he is in his finest moment to show the potential many anointed to him as a hustling and bustling 15-year-old.
‘I like him a lot,’ Lyon boss Paulo Fonseca told Mail Sport this week.
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‘I think he’s having a good moment, he’s making a lot of assists, scoring a lot of goals. He’s a technically different player, but if he’s having a great moment, it’s because he has team-mates who have done a different job so that Cherki can have this moment. The credit comes from the team.’
‘He’s the greatest natural talent I’ve ever seen,’ Maitland-Niles added to the BBC. ‘An absolute master, a magician with the ball. He takes risks, makes assists and brings us up the pitch by taking people on and pushing them to the limit – he’s a genius.’
With a verbal agreement on a release clause for around £25million, all of Europe’s elite, including Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, are now circling a player that they hope has finally flicked a switch on his maturity to make him worth the gamble.
Cherki came back to bite Manchester United last week and is ready to do so again now. Lyon have finally found the formula for their ‘genius’ young star to deliver on the biggest stage.
