Manchester City academy games regularly attract scouts looking to get ahead of their rivals by monitoring the best talent around. It was clear to see who was the main attraction at a recent Youth Cup win for the young Blues.
75 minutes into Manchester City’s recent FA Youth Cup demolition of West Brom and the scouts watching had seen enough.
Specifically, they had seen enough of one player in particular, with a handful of scouts heading for the exit when City midfielder Divine Mukasa’s number was shown.
Mukasa was disappointed in his substitution, having only provided two assists in the 6-0 win. That shows what kind of player City have on their hands, yet the frustration that may reflect negatively actually impressed his coach after the game.
Under-18 head coach Oliver Reiss had done his best to avoid praising hat-trick hero Finlay Gorman in that game, and then couldn’t stop talking about Mukasa in glowing terms.
‘Brilliant’, ‘unbelievable’, ‘incredible’, were among the words used by Reiss to describe a player with 14 goals and 24 assists this season across three age groups.
When those stats are put to the 17-year-old, though, there is barely a smile. “I can’t complain,” he told the Manchester Evening News. Mukasa has generated headlines for strikes from the halfway line and his Panenka penalty in the UEFA Youth League that hit the underside of the bar and bounced just over the line.
He treads a fine line between perfection and failure, with an impressive knack of almost always falling on the right side of that line. Just like the Panenka, there is no safe option with Mukasa, who is enjoying a breakthrough season after his 2023 move from West Ham.
His record shows he does his talking on the pitch and he tries to form relationships with specific teammates, like Gorman, so he knows what they will do in specific positions, resulting in his eye-catching goal record.
“That’s what I enjoy most, every time I’m playing, just creating and scoring goals. That’s what I like to do,” he explained, with an understated assessment of the most difficult part of being a footballer – something he’s making look easy this season.
So let Reiss give a more enthused verdict on his creative machine at the heart of City’s bid for four academy trophies this season.
“At the end it’s his quality. He is so brilliant on the ball. What he can do with the ball sometimes is unbelievable,” the German said with a smile. “It looks sometimes too easy for him, because of his quality. He’s good with both feet, normally he’s left-footed but then delivers to the corner with his right foot. So no problem, the way he’s thinking, what he sees, it’s incredible for me.”
Reiss also waxed lyrical over Mukasa’s mentality, unhappy at that substitution at the Hawthorns.
“I know he’s maybe not so happy today to be substituted off to not have a goal. But it’s normal and I like that he’s coming off a little bit unhappy,” the coach explained. “He’ll also be happy for us as a team reaching a semi-final. [Against West Brom] it was Finlay a little bit more in terms of the goals but what Divine Mukasa was doing up to now has been incredible.”
Mukasa does allow a smile of his own when discussing his idols – Zinedine Zidane and Kevin De Bruyne, the two names that come to mind when talking about the players he bases his game on. He’s focused on each game in front of him while also making sure he’s laying the groundwork for the future.
“[De Bruyne] is similar in terms of always looking to create and score goals. From the times I’ve trained with them, I’ve tried to pick up as much as I can from the way he behaves, he gives everything every day,” said the teenager. “He’s a good person to look up to. It’s a privilege really [to train with the first team]. They are the best team in the world with the best players in the world, I’m really grateful to be around it.
“Everything we do in the academy is based on the first team, that’s how you build a pathway for the players and make sure if we do ever get the chance to go up there then we’re ready.”
27 of his 38 goal contributions have come in the Under-18 Premier League, his main outlet to show his abilities. The Youth Cup and Youth League could see the academy land an unprecedented cup double, while he may also end the season with two league titles given his appearances in the Under-21 and Under-18 leagues that are going well for City.
The more he impresses his coaches, and the more goals he creates, the more scouts who will flock to his games (and leave early when Mukasa’s role is done).