£38m man Aguero key to Euro ambitions

SERGIO Aguero’s father-in-law made a habit of flying in to watch him play for Atletico Madrid. He promised that he would do the same after the striker’s £38 million move to Manchester City. The club’s long-awaited Champions League debut, against Napoli at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night, would be an appropriate way to start.

Diego Maradona, whose daughter, Giannina, married Aguero in 2009, was treated with almost religious fervour by Napoli fans during his seven years there as a player. At the peak of his brilliant career, he helped them to win two Serie A titles and a UEFA Cup and it remains the most successful period in the club’s history.

Now, they are back in the big time, a bit like City. Just as the English club are at last fulfilling their potential, so are Napoli restoring their position among the biggest clubs in Italy. Both teams play in sky blue, both finished third in their league last season and both are thrilled to be in a section that also includes Bayern Munich and Villarreal. Much to Aguero’s embarrassment, parallels are being drawn between him and Maradona, as they always are when Argentina produces another icon. By turning out for Independiente at the age of 15 years and 35 days, he replaced Maradona as the youngest man ever to play in the country’s top flight. Born and brought up in a bullet-ridden Buenos Aires slum, he has his father-in-law’s stocky build, as well as an occasional tendency to play fast and loose with the rules. While playing for Atletico in a Europa League match against Bolton, he was sent off for spitting at Matt Taylor. There was even a ‘hand-of-god’ moment when he punched home a winner against Recreativo in 2006.

That, though, is where the comparison ends. Sure, he has a low centre of gravity that enables him to spin quickly out of tight situations, as well as the most unpredictable dribbling manoeuvres, but Aguero is closer to an orthodox striker than Maradona. Although he has often played in a withdrawn role, prompting suggestions that he will not be allowed to start in the same team as Carlos Tevez, he scored 102 goals in five seasons with Atletico.

If he is to be compared with any South American striker, it should be Romario, whose talent was measured in goals. Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, has said that Aguero is a photocopy of the Brazilian World Cup-winner. Anatoly Byshovets, whose Lokomotiv Moscow side played Atletico in the UEFA Cup, went a step further. “Watching Aguero play is like visiting the Prado Museum,” he said. “He reminds me of Romario except that he presses all over the pitch and plays a greater role in the team’s play.”

Weeks before his transfer to City in July, he celebrated his 23rd birthday by driving a Chevrolet, then a Dodge, ten times round La Plata, a circuit in Argentina.

Aguero calls himself the Che Guevara of football. Perhaps conscious that some, including Maradona, wanted him to join an established force such as Juventus or Real Madrid, he portrays himself as a kind of revolutionary, rebelling against the accepted order. Not that he is likely to be found fronting an anti-capitalism march any time soon. The player who has signed a five-year, £225,000-a-week contract is the third most expensive in English football history after Tevez and Fernando Torres. Justifying those figures is an impossible task, but in his debut against Swansea City last month, he gave it a go, scoring twice in a breathtaking 31-minute appearance that had City fans all in a lather. Unlike Tevez, who has never settled in Manchester, Aguero will have his family in England, including seven siblings, his mother, and his father, a taxi driver who used to coach the team Sergio played in as a boy. Then, of course, there is the Dubai-based Maradona, for whom a trip to England would also mean a chance to be with his two-year-old grandson, Benjamin.

City have waited a long time for days like these. Their only previous appearance at this level was in the 1968-69 European Cup, when they lost in the first round to Fenerbahce. Since the takeover by Sheikh Mansour in September 2008 – since when they have spent £1.35bn, including £457m on players – this has been their target. By winning last season’s FA Cup, they secured their first trophy in 35 years. Now, Mancini is talking about winning the double, and not necessarily a domestic one. Andre Villas-Boas, the Chelsea manager, already has said that City could win the Champions League at the first time of asking.

Mancini has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal, with Edin Dzeko leading the line, and countless supporting options, from Tevez and Samir Nasri to David Silva and Mario Balotelli, but Aguero is the most exciting of the lot. When Chelsea met Atletico Madrid in the group stage of the Champions League four years ago, Didier Drogba was asked about the player who scored two goals for the Spanish club, one a thunderous volley, the other a curling free kick. “The only word I can use to describe Aguero is specactular,” said Drogba. “I don’t want to disrespect Atletico, but great players end up at great clubs.” If Manchester City are not already a great club, they are well on their way to becoming one.