One of Ederson’s last acts as a Manchester City player down on the south coast in Brighton was to run and disrupt a rondo between substitutes that quickly descended into an elaborate game of keepy up.
James Trafford had the gloves, warming up in front of the travelling supporters, while the smiling Brazilian, knowing he was on his final lap as a City representative, effectively mucked about with the rest of the bench.
Ederson was always at home in that setting, his feet as trustworthy as the hands. Were it not for the alternative training kit, you could mistake him for a midfielder.
He didn’t give up a single ball, avoiding any gentle punches delivered to those who ruin sequences. He grinned away throughout, looking at peace that this was the farewell, a man so nonchalant that his Lamborghini has been seen slipping underneath the security barriers at the club’s training ground.
Leaving the Premier League with a record seven assists for a goalkeeper and his fabled feet, Ederson – the greatest ball-playing No 1 there has ever been, surpassing Manuel Neuer, and a major influencer of change in English football – makes way for a man not exactly renowned for excelling in that area of the game.
For that reason, and despite the avalanche of money thrown at transfers this summer, Gianluigi Donnarumma’s £26million arrival as a Manchester City goalkeeper, a Pep Guardiola goalkeeper, is the most intriguing of them all.
Despite the avalanche of money thrown at transfers this summer, Gianluigi Donnarumma’s £26million arrival as a Pep Guardiola goalkeeper is the most intriguing of them all
Ederson – the greatest ball-playing No 1 there has ever been – makes way for a man not exactly renowned for excelling in that area of the game
Were it not for that curiosity, welcoming a Ballon d’Or nominee for this value with his peak years still to come could only be described as a blockbuster moment for whoever had picked him up.
As it is, this appears a huge departure, a change in style, redefining how City go about building from the back. But then, sources have told Daily Mail Sport that in the final months of Guardiola’s maiden season – when they were devising who would take over from Claudio Bravo after his disastrous first campaign – that Donnarumma was first pick.
Guardiola wanted the Italian, following his progress for AC Milan after watching him in a friendly against Tottenham held at the Allianz Arena in Munich two years earlier. Donnarumma was 16 and hadn’t even made his senior debut at that point, Guardiola approaching him to offer congratulations at the bravery from playing out from the back.
Despite that tender age, ex-Milan manager Filippo Inzaghi tells us that he had debated long and hard about throwing him in even earlier.
‘It was clear at 15 he’d become a great,’ Inzaghi says. ‘I had thought about debuting him in the last Serie A match against Atalanta, but after careful consideration, it was decided that it would be best to wait for the right moment for his good.’
Fast forward to 2017 and although possessing reservations at signing a teenager to keep goal after the Bravo catastrophe, City were very interested – eventually only thwarted by Milan’s exorbitant demands.
That they ended up shelling out £35m for Ederson from Benfica – then the second-highest fee paid for a goalkeeper after Gianluigi Buffon’s move from Parma to Juventus in 2001 – offers a yardstick for Milan’s evaluation of their academy product at the time.
It cannot be reasonably claimed that these turn of events, and the pivot to Ederson, wasn’t to City’s eternal benefit. The widely held belief is that without Ederson, the unprecedented level of success and the panache with which that was achieved doesn’t happen. Guardiola will tell you that, the recently departed director of football Txiki Begiristain too.
The widely held belief is that without Ederson, Manchester City’s unprecedented level of success and the panache with which that was achieved doesn’t happen
Guardiola identified Donnarumma from an early age but was unable to recruit him
The story of Guardiola’s meeting with Donnarumma when he was still Bayern Munich boss does highlight that City must think there is a passer in there somewhere. Not to in any way touch Ederson’s prowess, even with intense training, but serviceable for how they want to play, which will now come with a tweak. A tweak acting as a nod to the more athletic Premier League and teams who push high, man to man.
Guardiola has watched the fear factor around City vanish over the last 12 months, presenting more difficulties with how they attack teams from their own goal line. This signing is undoubtedly an alteration in the method.
James Trafford, who has been under the impression that he is No 1, is more in line with the guy who won six league titles and a Champions League, despite the error against Tottenham. Donnarumma would still be the presumptive favourite to play in Sunday’s derby.
Stefan Ortega, who refused moves from suitors in England, Turkey and Saudi Arabia after being blindsided by City’s summer business, is capable with his feet as well.
In a summer of wholesale change in the goalkeeping department, former Hoffenheim coach Philipp Birker has come in as the club’s first ‘goalkeeping coordinator’ – focusing on the younger players and removing an aspect of Guardiola’s keeping expert Xabi Mancisidor’s weekly routines.
City say they went for Donnarumma once it became clear Ederson was leaving. Others insist that Ederson was waiting on progress with Donnarumma before pressing on with Fenerbahce. The truth, somewhere in between, is that the two were intrinsically linked and there have come suggestions from some sources that Guardiola had long decided on a different profile of keeper. That in itself would point to Ederson’s days having been numbered for a while.
City, the new City, landed on somebody adept at keeping the ball out, a monstrous presence who has form for producing his very best on the very biggest occasions. England fans know all about that given the Euro 2020 final penalty shootout, as more recently do Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal from their chastening experiences against him in last season’s Champions League.
By virtue of having made his debut at 16, and instantly becoming Milan’s No 1, Donnarumma is already a seasoned veteran at the age of just 26, having already racked up 412 club appearances and 76 more for his country.
Donnarumma broke the hearts of three sets of English fans in last season’s run to Champions League glory – beating Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal
And four years ago he made Wembley his own in the penalty shootout that won Euro 2020 for Italy against England
‘We are talking about the best players I have seen in the distribution, in short and long, with Ederson,’ Guardiola said. ‘We didn’t take Gigio to do what Ederson has done. I would not demand to Gigio to do something like this.’
Eight years on from City’s initial interest and Donnarumma was finally in the building on Wednesday. He had undergone his deadline day medical in Florence while on international duty, flying to Manchester 18 hours after the chaotic 5-4 win over Israel, after which he became embroiled in ugly scenes with opposition players who accused him of taunting them amid the war in Gaza.
He’d punched an Israel corner into his own net, only for the referee to award a fortunate foul, and later had a mix up in possession with midfielder Nicolo Barella. But a couple of crucial saves also preserved Italy’s lead towards the end. The Italian newspapers had no clue how to mark their captain out of 10.
That was in the rear-view mirror when boarding the private jet over to England with agent Enzo Raiola – cousin of the late Mino, once king of that realm – on Tuesday.
Described as giddy, Donnarumma was in at the City Academy with a sizeable entourage just before 10 o’clock the morning after, making particular effort at attempting to learn the names of everyone at reception and beyond. He struck up an instant rapport with two Italians: doctor Max Sala and one of the club baristas, whom Begiristain plucked from a café in town to serve Guardiola his morning coffee.
‘He’s got such a presence about him, the guy is massive,’ one staff member said – even if at 6ft 5in he is actually an inch shorter than Trafford. Donnarumma, whose partner Alessia, son Leo and family poodle are moving to the area, understands English to a strong standard but is not confident speaking the language fluently and is expected to learn over the coming months.
This is at the end of a turbulent summer, the first real bump in the road of an already glittering career and time at PSG bookended by some confusion. Donnarumma was presented to Mauricio Pochettino in 2021, a Galactico on a plate, yet the manager’s loyalty to Keylor Navas made that a tricky situation to deal with.
He comes into the Manchester derby on the back of a shaky international break, shipping four goals to Israel in a 5-4 victory
‘He’s got such a presence about him, the guy is massive,’ one City staff member said
After a period of rotation, Donnarumma would cement the position and turn in those destiny-deciding performances during last season’s run to Champions League glory.
Yet once the Club World Cup in America ended, PSG defeated by Chelsea in the final, Luis Enrique made clear they were moving on from the 26-year-old. They wanted a different profile, he said, and the perceived wisdom was that Donnarumma’s footwork had done for him.
Lucas Chevalier, signed from Lille, recorded lower pass completion and a lower percentage of accurate long passes last season, while his statistics on actually keeping goal in both Ligue 1 and Europe were superior.
Not an exact science given the different ways opposition will handle PSG and Lille but the ‘profile’ argument is partially knocked on the head. Also, there is a suspicion by those close to Donnarumma that it was the club’s football advisor Luis Campos, not Enrique, who instigated the decision.
Negotiations over a new contract had dragged somewhat through the season but there was an understanding, going into the Club World Cup, that the two parties were approaching an agreement. The acceptable verbal offer was there and would be dealt with formally after the competition finished.
A ‘distraught’ Donnarumma was on holiday when PSG communicated that the deal had been rescinded and that he’d be training with the cast offs. City were tentatively around earlier in the summer to explore a potential deal, contradicting Guardiola’s utterances that Ederson and Ortega would be his keepers, yet PSG demanded more than £35m. It was a non-starter for somebody in the last 12 months of a contract.
City were deemed the only realistic option though. Chelsea, for example, briefly looked at Emiliano Martinez instead. Once Paris saw sense at the negotiating table, things moved quickly over a 36-hour period.
‘He’ll dominate the box,’ one source at a rival of City’s said. When Ederson’s more favourable save percentage numbers over the last year were put to them, they pointed out that City were under considerably more fire than PSG last season. And suggested that Donnarumma is somebody who rises to an occasion – like that Euro final at Wembley four years ago.
Donnarumma was allowed to wave goodbye to the Paris Saint-Germain fans when it became clear he was heading for east Manchester
In Europe’s top five leagues, only Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak and Rennes’ ex-Nottingham Forest No 1 Brice Samba have prevented more expected goals than the Italian since making his professional debut.
One goalkeeping coach at a different rival described him as ‘rangy and reachy’ to Daily Mail Sport and discussed how he ‘sweeps’ his leading leg and relies on reactions when stared down by strikers.
On Friday, when asked what difference Donnarumma offers, Guardiola replied: ‘He’s so tall.’
Then he delivered a wink, a wink to suggest that City’s manager is well aware of the fascination around this transfer – and in those three words captured exactly how City’s outlook has shifted.
