Cherki ‘one of the prodigies of French football’ says legendary manager Guy Roux

It’s safe to say that legendary former Auxerre manager Guy Roux has the eye for talent in French football. In his 44-year stint as l’AJA coach he would unearth the likes of Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc and Djibril Cissé. But following Lyon’s win over Auxerre last night (3-1), the 86 year-old was singing the praises of OL’s mercurial creative spark, Rayan Cherki, in an interview with Le Progrès after the game.

Roux described Cherki as “one of the prodigies of French football,” following his former side’s 3-1 loss to Les Gones – where Cherki was heavily involved with an assist and a lovely curled effort to double OL’s lead in the second half. It comes off the back of a busy week for the Frenchman, after he scored the equalising goal for Lyon in last Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final clash against Manchester United (2-2) right at the very death.

“Cherki never makes mistakes, like a schoolboy getting zero errors on his dictation test. Every ball he touches becomes a good ball,” said Roux, clearly enchanted by the 20-year-old’s performance at Stade Abbé Deschamps on Sunday evening.GFFN | George Boxall