Had the summer window played out differently, Claudio Echeverri could have been lining up for Manchester City at the Etihad tonight when they face Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
The reality is less appetising.
The 19-year-old signed on loan for the Bundesliga club in August and is eligible to face his parent club, but if his first four months in Germany are anything to go by, he might not feature at all.
Echeverri spent Saturday on the bench in Wolfsburg as Leverkusen won 3-1. He did the same a fortnight ago as they beat Heidenheim 6-0. Not even a drubbing like that could persuade manager Kasper Hjulmand to give the striker a chance of breaking his duck for the club.
Hjulmand has implemented a 3-4-2-1 system that, in theory, should offer Echeverri three potential positions: the two attacking midfield roles or as the main striker. Patrik Schick is the team’s focal point so it was more likely Echeverri would play in the supporting roles. City manager Pep Guardiola trialled a similar role alongside striker Erling Haaland.
But the Argentinian has played just 70 minutes in the nine league games under Hjulmand, starting once and coming off the bench once. He has been an unused sub in the other seven games.
Leverkusen’s sacking of Erik ten Hag after just three games has not helped. The squad had been completely transformed, so Echeverri was walking into a team with little to no stability, but Leverkusen, at a club level, pursued him hard.
They are covering all of Echeverri’s wages and agreed to a seven-figure loan fee.
Conditional loan fees are designed to encourage the borrowing club to give the player game time to develop, but this has not been happening under Hjulmand, the former Denmark national team manager who took over in September.
The lack of on-pitch minutes saw him omitted from Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina squad for the recent World Cup qualifiers. Securing a place at next summer’s tournament was a driving motivation behind the 19-year-old and his camp’s decision to move to Leverkusen. The promise of Champions League football and regular minutes was an attractive proposition, but neither have materialised.
This is a promising talent who Guardiola rates highly. The City manager brought him on in the FA Cup final in May to try to save the day. He nearly did, but squandered several big chances. Nevertheless, his performances at the Club World Cup gave the impression he had a future at the Etihad.
Claudio Echeverri played in the FA Cup final for City last season (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
City’s ’emerging talent team’, the division of the club’s recruitment department that identified Echeverri at River Plate, believed he had the most potential of any signing they had made. A team that got off the ground with Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus, they had their first unexpected breakthrough when Ufa’s Oleksandr Zinchenko forged a first-team pathway that had not been originally planned.
Echeverri is a different case. He is the prototype they aim to find — a natural talent who makes his mark young and can be signed before he explodes into a target for every major European club.
That is still the trajectory hoped for, but a bad six months can affect career development if a misjudged loan leads to confusion about who the player is and what he needs.
All parties are aware of the need to avoid this, which is why his loan is to be reviewed in the January window. City have a recall clause and Echeverri could be sent elsewhere to find the game time he has missed out on.
The other school of thought is that, much like in the summer when there were some voices advocating for Echeverri to stay in-house and learn under Guardiola, returning to City could be a safer option. Particularly with Omar Marmoush, who is filling the role as Erling Haaland’s back-up, heading to the Africa Cup of Nations.
He could go to another of the summer’s suitors. Borussia Dortmund had an offer rejected that was a loan with an option to buy, but City see him as a long-term prospect. Roma were interested, as were City Football Group sister club Girona, who have Brazilian Vitor Reis on loan. Reis, 19, has started 11 La Liga matches and it would offer Echeverri guaranteed football where City could keep an ever closer eye on him but this was not an option that was palatable in the summer.
“It is a question for his beautiful agent,” said Guardiola on Monday when asked about Echeverri’s situation.
“Always I would love that players we love play a lot of minutes, the intention is always there, we have an incredible appreciation about him as a football player and what happens in Leverkusen you have to ask (them). I’ve not been involved, I didn’t speak with him. I am pretty sure his agent will know everything.”
He was given rare starts against Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain but Leverkusen lost both (7-2 and 3-0 defeats). Echeverri was taken off after 57 minutes at the Allianz Arena and at half-time against the reigning Champions League winners.
The decision to start him in the two games Leverkusen were the underdogs suggests that he could be an option for the game at the Etihad, but the circumstances do not seem to lend themselves to a starting berth.
That has to change quickly, somewhere, or a speed bump in a promising career could become a puncture.