Darren Bent has compared Nathan Ake to one of the game’s greatest ever players in AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini.
The £41 million (Sky Sports) man was also praised by Marco van Basten for how faultless he has been this season, as the Dutch legend said he ‘makes almost no mistakes.’
While Darren Bent is evidently only making the comparison to Paolo Maldini as hyperbole, it just highlights how brilliant Nathan Ake has been in a Manchester City shirt this season.
Darren Bent compares Nathan Ake to Paolo Maldini
While Ake has largely been a rotation option at the Etihad Stadium since his move in 2020, he has become a real mainstay at left-back since the World Cup.
Perhaps the biggest compliment one can pay to the Dutch international is that despite Joao Cancelo’s temporary departure, who is arguably the best left-back in the world, it has simply not been felt by the Sky Blues.
Darren Bent, while talking all things Manchester City went on to liken Nathan Ake to Paolo Maldini on talkSPORT, saying, “Nathan Ake now looks like [Paolo] Maldini!”
Considering the former Bournemouth centre-back was largely underrated amongst the general public, this statement indicates how far he has come.
MCN View: Ake deserves all the credit in the world
The 28-year-old seemed inches away from making a return to Chelsea before doing a U-turn on the move, as he seemingly ought to fight for his place.
At the time, the decision seemed impractical, considering the level of competition in central defence at City.
Cut to the present and Darren Bent is comparing Nathan Ake to the Italian icon while Oleksandr Zinchenko recently described his ex-teammate’s outing against Bayern as ‘top’, which tells you how he has managed to make himself an undroppable figure in the side.
And that too, out of position.
Regardless of what Manchester City achieve this season, the Dutchman deserves a lot of praise for emerging as a key player at arguably the best team in the world, virtually out of nowhere.
