Abdi Ibrahim made his bow for the Blues in the win over Scunthorpe in the FA Cup last January and this graduate of City’s youth academy continued to force his claims for the rest of the season.
He’ll have to wait to work alongside new signings David Silva and Yaya Toure, who have yet to meet up with the City squad on their US tour, but he’s relishing the prospect.
“I’m loving it at the moment!” smiles the 19-year-old Norwegian. “I’m really excited about meeting up with and training with people like Yaya Toure and David Silva so I can learn from them and keep improving.
I think that Yaya will be the one that I’ll look to learn the most from. He’s a midfielder too, and he’s tall like me so it will be interesting to see if I can take something from his game
...Abdi Ibrahim
“He’s played on the biggest stages for Barcelona and in the World Cup, I can’t wait to train with him. It’s fantastic for young players like me that the club can bring players of his quality here.”
But Abdi has already honed his game alongside one of the very best practitioners of the midfielder’s art in the shape of a World Cup winner that he has idolised for years.
“Patrick Vieira was my hero growing up,” Abdi adds, “so training with him is all my dreams come true. We talk to each other a lot, he’s actually a very funny guy which most people won’t realise! He also looks out for me a bit, but I’m learning from him all the time just by watching him in training.”
