JOAO CANCELO
MANCHESTER CITY, 27
More than a few eyebrows were raised in the summer of 2019, when Manchester City paid Juventus £60m for Joao Cancelo – still a world-record fee for a right-back.
After all, the Citizens already had Kyle Walker zipping up and down the right flank, and the experienced England man was showing few signs of slowing down.
By the end of that COVID-delayed season, few opinions had changed. Cancelo had been solid enough, but no goals or assists from just 13 Premier League starts was a limited return from such a sizeable outlay.
Pep Guardiola, though, had a plan. Cancelo was already hard at work out on the training pitch, desperate to perfect his coach’s desire for wide defenders to drift into central areas, providing an extra midfield body while also preventing opposition counter-attacks.
But that was then. After a brighter second season at Eastlands, Cancelo has exploded in 2021-22. By February’s winter break, the 27-year-old had racked up a combined 11 goals and assists in all competitions, and all but solved City’s problem left-back position. At times, he’s even kept Walker out of the starting XI on his natural side.
From his hat-trick of assists against Club Brugge in November’s 4-1 Champions League win – “unfortunately, there was no
