Who is Douglas Luiz? All you need to know about this Man City starlet attracting attention from Celtic
Manchester City’s transfer policy has undergone a change in recent years, with the club looking to acquire promising young players from lesser-known clubs across various leagues, besides making bids for proven players. Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane have benefitted from such strategies and both the youngsters have established themselves as top players at the club.
Continuing this trend, Manchester City signed 20-year-old Douglas Luiz in 2017 from Brazilian club Vasco da Gama and loaned out the youngster to Spanish club Girona, where he has continued to show good development.
Now, as per a report from Scotland Herald, Celtic are interested in wrapping up a loan deal for the youngster.
Let us get a deeper insight into one of the most promising talents, the Brazilian prodigy Douglas Luiz.
Background
Just like many of his Brazilian contemporaries, Douglas Luiz grew up in a poor community in Brazil and decided to take up football as a career to provide food for his family.
Douglas got into Vasco da Gama’s youth academy at the age of 14 and quickly rose up the ranks to play in the U17 team. He helped Vasco da Gama achieve promotion to the top flight of Brazilian football in 2016.
Douglas played an important role in Brazil’s U20 South American Championship in 2016 and made a lot of eyeballs turn with some impressive performances.
Even though Vasco had renewed his contract, the club could not hold on to their prodigy when Manchester City made the bid.
Style of play
Primarily a central midfielder by trade, Douglas is versatile enough to play in different roles in the midfield. With his ability to retain the ball with ease and elegance, the 20-year-old could be a perfect fit at the center of the park. While he has loads of composure and concentration on one hand, he is very subtle and opportunistic on the other hand. Furthermore, he tends to pick out his teammates with his wonderful range of passing.
Douglas can also play as a No.10 with his sublime ability to hold the ball for his teammates to get into desired positions. He could create extra yards of spaces with his agility and the ability to take quick turns.
Douglas can also play as a right-back, a central midfielder and an attacking midfielder if needed.
What does the future hold?
If Douglas continues to mature the way he has at Girona, then it won’t be long before Manchester City include him in their plans. But for now, moving out on loan seems to be the ideal option for the multi-faceted talent. And joining a team as dynamic as Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic could go a long way in helping him develop and mature further.
