Pep Guardiola was asked before Manchester City’s visit to Everton what had surprised him most about Rayan Cherki. His answer did not begin with a pass, a goal, or a training-ground detail. It began with a boxing video.
“On Instagram right now, [Cherki] is boxing. He’s scary!” Guardiola said, according to Manchester City’s official account of the press conference.
The reference fits Cherki’s first season at City, which has been built around controlled unpredictability. He is a player of quick shifts, late decisions, and angles that appear only when a defender has already committed.
The footage should not be treated as evidence of a new side project. Cross Counter Boxing Gym in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, published a post on Aug. 15, 2025, about Cherki preparing before the restart with a coach at the gym. It identifies one training session, not a separate pattern.
Cherki arrived from Lyon in June 2025 on a five-year deal through 2030, with a reported fee of about $45.70 million. The Frenchman notched 12 goals and 20 assists for Lyon in 2024-25. By August, City had reassigned him the No. 10 shirt. Grealish’s loan to Everton opened the number.
Why Cherki fits Guardiola’s City
The more revealing exchange came around the boxing line. City’s official write-up said Guardiola was responding to a suggestion that Cherki was a different type of footballer, or “not a Guardiola player.” The manager’s reply was plain: “What is my typical player?”
“I don’t have typical players. It’s not bad in his first season what he is doing. I don’t believe in that,” Guardiola said. “At Barcelona we had good players that were strong. Of course he can play, all the players I have here are my type of players.”
Cherki is not being used at City as a decorative exception to Guardiola’s structure. He is being trusted within it. The risk in his game remains visible, but City’s tolerance for it is tied to his output, his ability to receive under pressure and the way he can shift an attack without needing the move designed only for him.
On April 22, the Premier League credited Cherki with 10 assists, second in the division at the time, and four league goals. The numbers put the joke in practical territory. Guardiola can treat the footage lightly because Cherki has made himself relevant in the areas City measure every week.
The No. 10 shirt carries its own weight. City said the number became available after Grealish’s Everton loan and described it as historically associated with creative players. Cherki’s first season has matched that symbolism in practical ways: chance creation, disguise, quick feet, and the capacity to turn a half-open situation into something cleaner.
For Guardiola, the question has rarely been whether a player is expressive. It is whether the expression survives the demands of the team. Cherki’s boxing footage gave him a light answer in a press conference. His season has given him a firmer one on the pitch.
As City push through the final stretch of the Premier League title race, Cherki’s value is not that he looks different from the system around him. It is that he has given Guardiola a player who can change the shape of an attack while still fitting the team’s shape.
