Ayyoub Bouaddi has spent most of his early Manchester City career watching from the bench. On Friday night in Morocco, he gave Enzo Maresca a very loud reason to change that.
The 18-year-old midfielder produced a commanding display as Morocco beat Gabon 2-0 in their opening AFCON qualifier, dictating play from start to finish. Noussair Mazraoui and Soufiane Rahimi got the goals, but it was the teenager running the show in the middle.
The numbers behind his performance are striking. Bouaddi misplaced just four of 90 attempted passes — a completion rate that would look tidy in a training drill, let alone a competitive international. He created two chances, completed 12 passes into the final third and finished with a 100 per cent dribble success rate, going past his man all three times he tried. Gabon's response was to foul him twice.
And he was hardly a passenger without the ball. A tackle, two clearances, five recoveries and six duels won. For a player still settling into senior football, it was a complete midfield performance.
City paid up to £86million to bring him from Lille in the summer, a fee that raised eyebrows for a player with 63 Ligue 1 appearances to his name. Those appearances, though, came as a teenager in one of Europe's tougher leagues. He has also impressed in both the Champions League and the Carabao Cup since arriving at the Etihad.
Maresca has been careful with him. The City manager said earlier this month: "He's very good." He recalled a moment against Coventry that stuck with him. "Against Coventry he lost two balls and after he lost them, he was in our box, calm."
"Any player would panic but this shows how good he is. He's just 18. You expect Erling [Haaland], Ruben [Dias], Mateo [Kovacic] that they can manage these games, but he was top."
Maresca added: "You never expect that. Congratulations to Ayyoub and this is the reason he's here with us."
City's midfield has not exactly been short of options this season, which explains the bench time. But performances like Friday's have a way of accelerating a manager's thinking. Bouaddi did not just take his chance with Morocco — he grabbed it with both hands and gave it a shake.