Rico Lewis has played alongside a lot of top players during his time in Manchester City’s first-team.
After making 45 appearances in City’s youth academy, the 19-year-old made his senior debut for Pep Guardiola’s side back in August 2022.
Since then, the teenager has gone on to feature in 50 first-team games, scoring three goals, delivering four assists and playing with some of the best players the club has seen.
Now that the 2024/25 season is approaching, Lewis has taken the time to share some significant praise for one particular figure in the City squad.
- READ MORE: Who is Rico Lewis? The Man City prodigy who is one of the best Pep Guardiola has ever trained
Rico Lewis heaps praise on Rodri
In a recent interview in City’s August edition of their online magazine, Lewis shared some significant praise for Rodri, including how he deserves to win the Ballon d’Or and what it’s like to have him as a teammate.
He said: “He’s got a good chance of being in the high rankings for the Ballon d’Or. In my personal opinion, I’d say he deserves to win it, but there’s things that people care about more which is goals and assists.
“If you make that argument as a defensive-midfielder, he’s done more than most attacking-midfielders in terms of goals and assists.
“That’s not his main job, his main job is to keep things ticking for us and he does that in abundance. Like I say, in my opinion, he deserves to win it.
“Playing alongside him is a dream. It’s hard to not play well when you’re with him because he thinks so quickly for you.
“If he sees something, he’ll tell you, and then you see it come to light in the next phase of play. But then against him, it’s so difficult.
“He thinks two steps ahead, so you might think you’ve guessed early, but he’ll know and will turn and play the other way.
“It’s a credit to how good he is as a player, and he’s been like that for the past three or four years.”
Rodri does so much for City
Looking back over the previous Premier League campaign, the £220k-a-week midfielder ended the season not only with eight goals and nine assists from his defensive-midfield role but also the highest combined total of tackles and interceptions (96) at the club.
This highlights what Rodri, who Jamie O’Hara recently said is the most important defensive-midfielder around right now, is able to offer City and why Lewis has said it’s a dream to have him as a teammate.
