Rayan Ait-Nouri names Manchester City teammate he was most excited to play with | OneFootball

Manchester City defender Rayan Ait-Nouri has heaped praise upon Erling Haaland after making a fast start to life in a sky blue jersey in the United States.

Ait-Nouri, 24, joined Manchester City for £31 million from Wolves in the opening week of the summer transfer window and impressed on his full debut at the weekend as the Blues launched a 6-0 rout of Al Ain in their second FIFA Club World Cup group-stage clash.

City have finally addressed their long-standing issues at left-back – an area that has been at the heart of their defensive frailties for almost the entirely of Pep Guardiola’s tenure at the Etihad Stadium.

The France international put in a solid, eye-catching display on Sunday and already seems like a bargain buy for the 2023 treble winners, who have also added Marcus Bettinelli, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki to their ranks ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

Ait-Nouri would ideally keep his place in the starting XI for when Manchester City face Juventus in their final Club World Cup group-stage tie on Thursday, but it remains to be seen how Guardiola selects his lineup.

The Manchester City manager made 11 changes to his lineup against Al Ain and could repeat the trick against the Italian giants, who claimed a 2-0 triumph over the Blues in their UEFA Champions League group-stage meeting last term.

Nico O’Reilly and Josko Gvardiol can play at left-back – with Rico Lewis suspended for the upcoming game against Juventus – but Ait-Nouri represents a reliable outlet to make the position his own after establishing himself as one of the best full-backs in England after an impressive few seasons at the Molineux Stadium.

Speaking to Mirror Sport this week, the new signing from Wolves has provided some insight into his excitement about playing alongside Erling Haaland, who has enjoyed a favourable scoring run against Ait-Nouri’s former club since his arrival to the Premier League in 2022.

“It’s very good for me. We know Erling (Haaland) is a great player, he makes a lot of things for the football,” the Frenchman said.

“For sure, it’s good to play with him (Haaland) and to play also with the other players. It (Manchester City) is the best team in the world on its good game.

“We were very excited to play together. They also made a very good first game. We play our game, you know. We try to score a lot of goals.

“We try to defend also together. We scored six goals, it’s good also for the confidence. Hopefully we’ll continue like this.”