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A few weeks into the Premier League season and at a time when Erling Haaland’s goal was an all in all more modest nine, Manchester City snuck another Borussia Dortmund asset into the building.
There was less fanfare about this. Haaland had arrived from Germany for a lot of money and was specifically tasked with taking City to another level.
His old team-mate Manuel Akanji was cheaper – at just £15million – and certainly less well known, his arrival was partly caused by a late summer mid-half injury crisis.
But the Swiss defender has already made a significant impact in his own understated and elegant way.
Swiss defender Manuel Akanji arrived at Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund for £15m
We first noticed him in the Manchester derby a month after his arrival. With Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias on Pep Guardiola’s bench, Akanji started the match. It felt like a big call, but soon it didn’t look like it anymore.
The 27-year-old was extremely unflappable as City beat their neighbors 6-3. A month later, he is still on the team.
“Honestly, everything happened late in the transfer window,” Akanji told Sportsmail. “It was through my agent, but Erling also texted me that he’d heard something and that City had asked him about me.
“I wasn’t sure if it was serious or not. I said I’d like to come, but I’m always insecure in those situations because I have no hope. But suddenly I was here and very happy. I’ve played in the team, but that didn’t surprise me.
The 27-year-old impressed in City’s 6-3 win over Manchester United and hasn’t lost his place since
“I know I’m capable of it, but I just didn’t know if it was going to happen this way. I was ready when I got here and I just tried to show that to the coach. I’m glad he saw something he likes.’
Akanji’s change of circumstances since late August is an indication of how football could go.
At Dortmund he went into the last year of his contract and not really in the team. Now he expects a World Cup with Switzerland as a member of arguably the best club team in the world.
“Yes, football can quickly change for you in a good way and it shows,” he nods. ‘But it can also go the other way. So you always have to be on your guard to take everything you have with you.’
Four days after the chaos of Anfield, Akanji is at home. With City’s squad given two days off – ‘to clear our minds’ – after the 1-0 defeat to Liverpool, their newest recruit flew to Switzerland to celebrate his mother’s birthday.
Now that the dust has settled, Akanji can reflect on his first experience of what would appear to be English football’s most layered modern rivalry.
“It’s funny you ask,” Akanji says with a smile. “Because before the game, when we walked into the stadium for our warm-up, it was so quiet. No yelling or anything. I told Erling I thought it was weird. I expected it to be very busy and the mood against us. But I felt nothing at all.
He has already played in two of the biggest games of English football against United and Liverpool
“We came back for the game and I also talked to Riyad Mahrez. He sat right next to me. I was like, “Is it always like this here? Everyone talks so much about Anfield and I don’t really see it”.
“He just told me to wait for the game to start and when it did I felt a completely different atmosphere. Especially in the second half when our goal was disallowed and goals were scored. It was really, really loud then.
“Not as loud as Dortmund. How many are there at Anfield? 50,000? There are 81,000 in Dortmund so maybe it’s not fair to compare. But it’s a great feeling at Anfield. The people are very close to the pitch and it was a great atmosphere for them and I love playing in that.
The centre-back ‘hate’ losing to Liverpool after Mo Salah’s late goal gave the Reds a 1-0 win
“I hate the fact that we lost because we shouldn’t have lost it and also because of the way the goals went.”
For those who have been on the moon, Liverpool beat City on a moody day with a late goal from Mo Salah. City’s Phil Foden had previously disapproved of one.
“The goal we scored felt like a great moment,” said Akanji. ‘But it was rejected. I’m also not sure if Salah hit the ball with his hand on their goal when I saw him play again.
“The ball came so fast and then it stopped. He turned a little and the ball went there. But it’s over now and we can’t change it, so we have to try and hope that next time we will win this game.”
Akanji thinks Erling Haaland is an ‘improved player’ after playing with him at Dortmund
If last Sunday’s game reminded us of the level Liverpool can still reach from Jürgen Klopp, it also said a lot that Football City have won so many titles in the last four or five seasons. Liverpool, as it stands now, only has one from that era.
“I really enjoy comparing it to teams I’ve played with before,” said Akanji, who started his career with series winner Basel in his home country.
“I look around at the players I train with and they are capable of so much. It’s really unbelievable.’
This season, Haaland stands out from the crowd in more ways than one. So far, the young Norwegian has scored 20 goals and his old Dortmund team-mate believes he has already kicked under Guardiola.
“As a footballer, he has already improved from what we were at Dortmund,” reveals Akanji. “He gets these great assists from his teammates, doesn’t he? But he tries to improve a lot in training. He does a lot himself.
He hasn’t changed as a person. We all change as we grow, but its fundamentals have not changed. He’s still the same. He’s still a very nice guy, a family man.
“He enjoys being with the team and spends a lot of time getting his body ready for the game. That’s how he is. I get on very well with him and he has already helped me to feel at home here.’
The Swiss defender praised the Norwegian striker for ‘helping him feel settled’ at the Etihad
Intelligence runs in the Akanji family. His father Abimbola worked in finance and one of his two sisters, Sarah, was until recently a politician.
“They’re all much smarter than me,” Akanji laughs. But the City defender does have a remarkable natural talent for mental arithmetic. As demonstrated recently during a fantastic Sky interview, Akanji can provide the answers to the most complex sums in less than a second. In Germany they said it was “faster than a calculator” and maybe they were right.
For example, when asked by Sky to give the answer ’93 x 60′, he answers without blinking ‘5,580’. It must be a great party trick, but one thing: Now that the secret is out, isn’t he afraid of an avalanche of random math challenges when approached for an autograph? Will Long Division Be The New Selfie Soon?
‘I’ve had that a few times in Germany’, he laughs. “Sometimes when I was going to sign an autograph, someone would ask, ‘What’s 25 x 32’ and I’d say, ‘Come on, I just had a hard workout. I just want to do the autograph”.
Akanji has several gifts off the field, including an extraordinary talent for mental arithmetic
“So I won’t always do it. I’m not always in the mood to make calculations! And sometimes I get the answers wrong on purpose because people don’t bother to check. They’re just stunned because I can do it so fast.’
All this is delivered with a smile and Akanji comes across as a man who is completely comfortable in his own skin. Maybe sometimes it helps to come to a big club a little later in a career. He confesses that he is not concerned about the extent of his move to City.
His wife gave birth to their second son, Keeyan, almost as soon as they arrived in England and that too has been taken in his big step.
“When I met the coach, the first thing he did was ask how my wife was doing,” he reveals.
The central defender stays close to Jadon Sancho after their time at Borussia Dortmund
His pre-match routine is rather endearingly Swiss. “Hot chocolate,” he says. ‘I do not know why. I started it about three years ago at Dortmund when Jadon Sancho was around.
“We always drank a hot chocolate before away games, before going to sleep. It’s just something that stayed with me. I think it’s because I did it as a kid and I still like it. Jadon was always in the room next to me.’
With Sancho now at United, the two friends are in touch. “We spoke on the phone today,” he says. However, United are not at City’s level these days. There are very few clubs.
“I thought I would fit in here and I’m glad I did,” Akanji added. “I’m not too worried and I play better when I’m not overthinking or stressed about the game. I know what I can do, I know what I can do.
‘I just really enjoy this. Everything seems to suit me. The team, the coach, the system. I just want to win titles.’