16-year-old Kaden Braithwaite was a surprise inclusion in the Manchester City starting lineup to face Watford on Tuesday evening.
The youngster lined up alongside veteran centre-back John Stones in the heart of City’s defence, playing 76 minutes of the 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
So, who is he?
Here’s everything you need to know about the youngster.
Aged just 16 years and 229 days, Braithwaite became the third-youngest player to ever play for City on Tuesday evening, lining up from the off against Watford in the third round of the Carabao Cup.
And aside from a scare when he was outmuscled by Kwadwo Baah in the lead up to an eventually disallowed goal, the defender played pretty damn well.
In his 75 minutes of action, Braithwaite completed 95% of his 65 pass attempts, won 100% of his tackles and recovered possession for his team on three occasions. That’s certainly a performance to be proud of for the young man.
As we’ve seen over the best part of the last two seasons, Pep Guardiola loves defenders who can fill in in multiple positions during games. So the fact that Braithwaite is a left-footed centre-back who can also play left-back will certainly be music to the City manager’s ears.
We’d imagine Guardiola will be pretty pleased with the fact that the young defender is very accomplished in possession too. Even on his senior debut, the 16-year-old was brimming with confidence on the ball and regularly wanted to be in possession – as his 77 touches and 17 passes into the final third against Watford attest.
Braithwaite has been on the books at City since under-nine level, working his way rather quickly through the academy ranks in recent years to become the club’s under-18s vice-captain at just 16 years old.
The youngster was one of 12 City Academy players to sign scholarships ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, before being called up senior training this past week.
In just one training session on Monday, Braithwaite managed to convince Guardiola to hand him his senior debut. That’s pretty damn impressive if you ask us.
Thanks to his confidence in possession of the ball, his ability to play as either a centre-back or left-back when required, and the fact that he’s left-footed, the closest comparison we can think is current City star Nathan Ake.
