Manchester City have seen several members of their squad in action during the 2024 European Championship.
In fact, Pep Guardiola’s side had more players from their squad selected to represent their countries in the tournament than any other side in the Premier League.
Despite that, with the group stage of the competition complete, one pundit and former City player has shared his thoughts on one particular player in the tournament that has been linked with a move to the Etihad Stadium in recent days.
- Man City transfer rumours: Every player linked to and from the Etihad in summer transfer window
Micah Richards shares what he’s heard about Riccardo Calafiori
Whilst assessing the group stage of the tournament in a recent edition of The Rest Is Football, Richards had this to say about Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori, in particular.
He said: “Calafiori – amazing! He’s the one everyone’s talking about. All the big clubs are linked with him.
“He plays his football for Bologna, and I think Arsenal are interested. I’ve heard Man City are interested.
“Really good on the ball, can score goals, can defend. And when we’ve been doing the games, I’ve been concentrating on Bastoni, but Calafiori has been equally impressive.”
Calafiori has shone at Euro 2024
Earlier this month, a report from The Athletic claimed that numerous clubs have the defender, who Alessandro Bastoni described having “enormous quality”, on their radar, with City being “curious” about him.
In his debut season with Bologna, who he joined last summer, the 22-year-old ended the campaign with the second-highest combined total of tackles and interceptions (97) at the Italian club.
As one of the three outfield players to feature in every minute of action for Italy at the Euros, Calafiori has made more interceptions (6) in the squad and has the second-highest number of clearances (9).
His overall performances have earned the centre-back a rating of 6.89/10 from WhoScored, making him the second-highest-rated outfield player in the Italy squad.
This further highlights how much of a capable defender he is and makes it easy to see why Richards has been so impressed with Calafiori.