The 17-year-old winger will join Troyes, a club owned by City Football Group, on a deal worth €6.5 million this summer.

Man City’s new strategy

Brexit rules mean it will now be much easier for City to sign teenage talent from Brazil and Argentina than Europe. They will let these young players play for some of their sister clubs in the hope that they will one day develop into excellent players.

Kayky, Yan Couto, Talles Magno and Metinho are just some of the Brazilian players who have joined clubs owned by City Football Group (CFG) in recent years. Argentine teenage winger Dario Sarmiento has also been included in Man City’s squad after signing from Estudiantes in 2021.

The next player to join that group will be Savinho, with CFG having agreed an initial €6.5m (£5.5m/$7.5m) deal with Atletico Mineiro to sign with this winger.

That fee could rise by a further 6m euros (£5m/$7m) if certain targets are met. The 17-year-old will join Troyes in the summer of 2022, becoming teammates with compatriot Metinho, who has been with the French club since before the 2021 season.

Arsenal is also said to be very interested in Savinho, but Man City’s owners quickly sought to own a player who has caused waves in the youth football scene in Brazil for many years.

Brazil’s new prodigy

Savinho joined Atletico-MG at the age of 11 in 2015 and was immediately promoted to the U13 team.

“He’s from So Mateus, Espirito Santo. He played for a team there. They went to Belo Horizonte to play against Atletico and Cruzeiro. Then he played a match against our team, Sintetic Ball , and left a lot of impressions,” Savinho’s representative, Juliano Rodrigues, shared with Goal.

“I saw that he had quality, and I suggested to Fred Cascardo, the academy director at Atletico at the time, that he should sign him immediately.”

The winger continued to play beyond his years throughout his time at Atletico’s training facility, standing out thanks to his magical left foot. Arranged to play on the right wing, he often rushed inside, scoring goals and creating assists, like one of his football idols, Arjen Robben. He has also been compared to Antony, who has played for Ajax and the Brazilian national team in the past year.

Savinho himself has always been an outstanding figure in Brazil’s U teams and was part of the Brazil U15 team that won the South American Under-15 Championship in 2019.

A year later, he signed his first professional contract with Atletico – a deal that attracted attention from the Brazilian public due to a release clause of up to 60 million euros (£50m/$66m) being included. in there.

Although Savinho’s salary is only equal to what a player his age usually earns, it proves to be enough to make Savinho’s dream come true, as he can buy a house for his mother .

“He loves his mother and his family very much. She helps him a lot,” Rodrigues explained. “Savinho’s mother also plays an active role in managing his finances, to be able to help her son’s career develop in the best way.”

The journey of rapid advancement

On the field, Savinho was first called up to Atletico’s first team during practice matches in 2020, where he soon caught the eye of coach Jorge Sampaoli.

The Argentine coach previously coached Santos when Rodrygo was starting to rise to prominence before joining Real Madrid. He described Savinho as even “much better” than Rodrygo.

“Savio is a very young player who has a great future,” said Sampaoli after giving the youngster his first professional match in October 2020. It was one of eight appearances for the team one of his before the end of the season.

“He has been training with his teammates and we know his abilities. We believe his future will be very bright,” Sampaoli added.

Although Savinho has played for the first team on numerous occasions, it was within the academy structure where he truly learned what it takes to succeed at Atletico.

“During my time in Atletico’s academy, he was always outstanding,” the club’s former youth director, Junior Chavare, told Goal. “He is a very dedicated and professional player, despite his young age.”

“We worked with him on some basics through the ‘DNA Alvinegro’ program, carried out in 2019 and 2020. He then came to train with Sampaoli’s team and he always please your teacher”.

Sampaoli left Atletico before the 2021 season, but his replacement, Cuca, did not ignore Savinho’s abilities. Cuca played Savinho in 13 games throughout the year, the majority of his minutes coming in the regional championship rather than Serie A.

Atletico have another new manager for 2022 in Antonio Mohamed and so far Savinho is hot, although that may be partly because he is leaving the club.

Regardless, it looks like CFG has got itself another South American gem. Now the battle to prove he can make it into Manchester City’s star-studded squad has begun.