After once again failing to win a major title on the international stage, England is asking itself the question. But where, in its football, is its Rodri, its Luka Modric or its Toni Kroos? The subject is addressed by the Guardian, and Paul Scholes, the iconic English midfielder of the 1990s and 2000s, provides the answer: her name is Kobbie Mainoo.
The former Manchester United player is a total fan of the player who was the revelation of last season at the Red Devils. You just have to see the way he talks about him. “He is the closest thing I have seen to Zinedine Zidane in the way he takes the ball, controls it and erases his opponent”Scholes fumes.
Mainoo? “Ten times better than me at the same age,” according to Scholes
In Manchester, the prodigy’s talent speaks for itself.
“I heard that a young player stood up to Casemiro in training, sometimes being better than him,
says Scholes, a former manager of Sir Alex Ferguson’s great MU.
The first time I saw him, I remember his calmness. The way he received the ball with confidence. I couldn’t believe that a player so young could do that. You can’t learn it, it’s just something he has inside him.”
These words of Scholes are all the more valuable because the Englishman does not give compliments easily, quite the contrary, since he is a consultant considered quite harsh in his criticisms. But for Mainoo, the sky is the limit. “I read some comparisons between me and this kid,” Scholes once confided, via Instagram.
Don’t waste your time, he’s 10 times better than me at 19.”
