Cavan Sullivan's talent has been a talking point for years. The 16-year-old midfielder has been rapidly, visibly maturing into the star who was promised. He has gotten his longest run of game time since turning pro, and the data is tantalizing. According to The Guardian Football, Sullivan has been signed by Manchester City.
Sullivan's impressive stats include four goals and three assists in MLS this season. Seven and seven in all competitions. Three and three in his last five games alone. Those are noisy stats, but the underlying numbers so far look just as bright: his 0.48 expected goals and assists per 90 minutes rank fourth among MLS teens with at least 1,000 minutes played.
Sullivan's style on the ball is less a young Messi and more like his other childhood hero, Alexis Sánchez: hips low, elbows out, juking defenders with feints, stutters, stepovers and changes of direction. He mixes in his weak foot to keep tacklers on their toes and applies a variety of touches to the ball, including a kid’s fair share of overly ambitious ones.
The next step for Sullivan will be to adapt to a totally different game at Manchester City. He'll have to answer some hard questions about his size and speed. Only 15 players in the Premier League last season were listed at or below Sullivan's current 5ft 7in, and just one of them, Enzo Le Fée, was a starter in a similar role.