“The first training, seeing all the players, I was definitely a little nervous. After that, all the nerves went down. It’s just a regular training session,” Christian McFarlane recalled.
Three weeks after his move to Manchester City, the 18-year-old left back who burst onto the scene with New York City FC last year was summoned to first team training to fill in for an injured player. An early taste of legendary manager Pep Guardiola’s environment was a timely reminder that blazing this trail – becoming the first ever NYCFC homegrown product to graduate to the crown jewel of the City Football Group family – was worth braving the bitter, damp British winter.
“I would say the first few weeks, the cold definitely was getting to me,” McFarlane told Backheeled. Initially staying at the CitySuites aparthotel, Christian and his mom, Claudine, soon found an apartment ten minutes away from the team’s facility.
“I was just getting used to everyday coldness, rain, mud, but after that, I just got used to this. So it’s been pretty good from there.”
McFarlane is eligible to represent the United States at the international level. Lately, though, he’s been far from home, settling into the country he still represents at the youth national team level.
The country where his life began.
