Know Your Players: Fernandinho, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Georgia Stanway

Do you know what the nickname Fernandinho means? One of the three players we’ll talk about today is a ‘standout candidate’ for the next team captain! Want to know who it is? Read this edition of Know Your Players to find everything you need to know about Fernandinho, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Georgia Stanway, our star Manchester City Football Club athletes.

Don’t forget to read till the end to find a special QNET-Manchester City announcement for all QNET IRs! You’re not going to want to miss it!

Fernandinho

First up today is Number 25, one of our City’s key players and a fan favourite, Brazilian footballer Fernandinho. He came from humble beginnings in Brazil, and has grown to become a world-class athlete and an inspiration to many. A veteran of the game, the midfielder’s stats, experience and skills speak for themselves. And when you find out what Guardiola has to say about him, you’ll be as excited as we are to see more of him on the pitch.

Fun Facts:

• His name is actually Fernando, but since there’s another world-famous Brazilian footballer by that name, he chose to change it to Fernandinho (which means ‘Little Fernando’ in Portuguese). Here’s a fun fact within a fun fact – at one point, they were playing side by side for City. And no, they’re not related, they just look very similar!
• He is multilingual. Fernandinho speaks Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, English and, due to his eight years with Ukrainian professional football club Shakhtar Donetsk, Russian as well.
• Fernandinho joined City in 2013 and has made a total of 308 appearances to date – 221 of them being Premier League matches. In his League career, ‘Ferna’ has made a total of 14,537 passes, 635 accurate long balls and 543 tackles with a 70% success rate.
• His footballer nickname is ‘The Holder’, a testament to his skills in controlling the midfield in every game. In 2018, statistics showed that City won 10% more of the games in which ‘Ferna’ is in the starting XI*. The numbers clearly indicate that the Blues concede more goals when he’s absent due to injury.
• Recently in May, ex-Blues captain Andy Morrison told Manchester Evening News that Fernandinho would be an ideal captain for the team. “When I look at him, he’s a player everyone at the club would follow, the players would follow him. I’ve often said it’s not about the title of captain that players follow, it’s the courage. Fernandinho’s got that in abundance and for me he would be a standout candidate.”

*The starting 11 players in the game

Oleksandr Zinchenko

Next, we have the Ukrainian City star, Oleksandr Zinchenko. The youngster comes from humble beginnings but his ambition, hard work, patience, and love for football were enough to get him to a top-tier club like City. A versatile, left-sided attacking midfielder playing at Number 11, he turns 24 this year and is looking at a long and bright future in football ahead of him.

Check out his best moments in this video.

https://www.facebook.com/mancity/videos/1809810165841625/

Fun Facts:

• Out of his 38 Premier League appearances so far, 31 of them were victories. So far, he made a total of 2,990 passes, 86 accurate long balls and 87 tackles with a 62% success rate. Not bad at all, kid!
• Originally starting out in left-back, he completely owned his role and gave a fantastic performance in the Carabao Cup win against Chelsea in 2018/2019.
• Zinchenko’s dream was to play in the starting team of Shakhtar Donetsk in his native Ukraine. He was dying to play with the likes of Fernandinho, who was with the club at the time. Although he never got the opportunity to progress to the senior team, after a one-year stint with Russian football club Ufa, City called with an offer to join our Blues. He ended up playing with ‘Ferna’ after all – how amazing is that!

Georgia Stanway

Lastly, we have Number 10 in the Manchester City Women’s Football Team, young City star Georgia Stanway. At only 21 years of age, she has progressed to become one of City’s key players. She already has an impressive football career and also many awards to her name. Coming from a small town in North-West England, she never forgets her roots, however, and remains a dedicated athlete. Always humble, in victory and in defeat.

Fun Facts: 

• Since joining our City in 2015, she’s made 55 appearances and scored 23 goals to date. When asked which of those games stand out as a favourite, she answered, “My favourite game ever for City was definitely when we won the FA Women’s Cup in 2019. We played West Ham in the final and won 3-0 and it was just a surreal day.” She scored a goal and won Player of the Match that day, so a surreal day indeed!
• Stanway played her debut international match in November 2018. She scored her first goal as a senior player for England in a 3-0 victory against Austria.
• Earlier in February, Stanway hosted a free football clinic for ten- to 14-year-olds in her hometown of Barrow. This clinic was part of City’s #SameGoals campaign, an initiative that aims to encourage aspiring female footballers.
• In 2019, she was awarded the PFA Young Player of the Year award and also extended her contract until 2022.

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