Roméo Lavia
Roméo Lavia (born 6 January 2004) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Manchester City and the Belgium under-19 national team. Club career. Anderlecht. Lavia is a youth product of the Belgian club Anderlecht. He arrived at eight years old at their training centre in Neerpede nearby Brussels. At a local international youth tournament for players under the age of 15 he got noticed for the first time by Pep Guardiola. The Spanish trainer was there on invitation of his Manchester City player Kevin De Bruyne who is co-organiser of  this tournament that also bears his name, "the KDB Cup". Manchester City. At the age of sixteen Lavia left Anderlecht in the summer of 2020 for Manchester City where he signed his first professional contract. He joined the U18 where he quickly stood out. In November that year after only eleven appearances he was already promoted to the U23. Together with the EDS team the Belgian youngster won the Premier League 2 championship in April 2021 and was voted player of the season. Since the summer of 2021 Lavia started training with the first team where Man City captain Fernandinho  took him under his wings. He got awarded a selection into squad of the Citizens that will play the Champions League of season 2021–22. The midfielder made his official debut at 17 years old for the first team on 21 September 2021 in the third round of the Carabao Cup season 2021–22 against Wycombe Wanderers. He got a yellow card. International career. Born in Belgium, Lavia is of Ghanaian descent. In 2019, he played one official game for the Belgium U15 youth team and also one for the Belgium U16 in which he scored once. He has since played a  lot of friendlies in which he's often team captain. Style of play. Lavia is a defensive midfielder. His biggest examples are Barcelona player Sergio Busquets and his Man City team mate Fernandinho. He enjoys recovering the ball, pressing high using intelligence, tenacity, and pace, and making line-breaking passes from deep. Honours. Manchester City Individual