Man City must already regret letting go player Pep Guardiola called ‘incredible’
Man City will surely rue their call to send Claudio Echeverri on loan to Bayer Leverkusen following a fresh update on his spell at the German club.
Football Insider revealed last year that Man City were closing in on Claudio Echeverri’s signature, and he officially joined later in January 2024 from boyhood club River Plate.
He rejoined River on loan upon his arrival in Manchester, however, and Football Insider revealed in September that Echeverri was finally set to join-up with his new City teammates in January, which he soon did as he went in Pep Guardiola’s squad for the second-half of the last campaign.
The 19-year-old attacking midfielder did not make much of an impact at the Etihad Stadium in the final few months of the last campaign, but did score his maiden Man City strike at the Club World Cup in June against Al-Ain.
Echeverri was reported to be leaving Man City in the early stages of the summer window, with a loan switch to Roma mooted, but he instead joined Bayer Leverkusen in August for the 2025-26 campaign.
Claudio Echeverri has barely played for Leverkusen and his minutes look unlikely to improve
Echeverri already had a tough task on his hands to become a regular with the German side after his move, considering he was joining a club that finished second in the Bundesliga last season and have been in the midst of a real transition period.
Just over a week after he joined, Erik ten Hag was sacked as Leverkusen boss after just three games in charge following a poor start to his tenure and a lacklustre pre-season.
The 19-year-old lost the head-coach who brought him to Germany before they even had the chance to form a proper bond, and he has, as a result, been unable to force his way into their starting eleven under new boss Kasper Hjulmand.
Leverkusen have enjoyed some decent form under the Danish head-coach so far, going unbeaten in his first six games in charge, and thus Echeverri has been stuck on the bench with only three fleeting substitute appearances since he was hired.
City will have expected him to force his way into the team by this point, considering how highly-rated and promising he is, and they must surely regret not keeping him around under Guardiola to gain more vital experience in English football.
The latest update on the Argentine youngster’s short-term future at the BayArena does not make for great reading for him or City, with Leverkusen’s managing director of sport Simon Rolfes recently revealing to German magazine Kicker why he has been limited to just 82 minutes of action so far this season.
He said: “The team must first gain defensive stability in order to play dominant football. The more we manage to do this, the more Claudio (Echeverri) and other attacking players will benefit from it.”
It certainly seems unlikely that Echeverri will become a regular starter under Hjulmand anytime soon, as a result of their defensive focus, and the Citizens may well be planning to recall him midway through the campaign to send him elsewhere.
What Guardiola has said about Echeverri as potential recall beckons
Football finance expert and former City financial advisor Stefan Borson previously told Football Insider that Pep Guardiola rates Echeverri very highly and there are no plans to let him leave the club permanently anytime soon.
Following his maiden City goal, the Catalan boss called Echeverri “an incredible player” and insisted that his goal was “fantastic,” so it has been made clear that he has a long-term future at the Etihad Stadium.
Guardiola also explained that he was impressed by Echeverri’s extra work on the training ground, as his “courage and quality” allowed him to become a regular during the Club World Cup.
City’s own relatively slow start to the 2025-26 campaign will further enforce the notion that they were wrong to allow him to leave on loan, and the Daily Mail recently reported that the club are set to take a view on his future nearer to the January window.