Claudio Echeverri's Journey: From Manchester City to Girona

Claudio Echeverri’s European education has not followed the glossy brochure.

Signed by Manchester City from River Plate in 2025 as one of South America’s brightest attacking prospects, the Argentinian arrived in England staring at a dressing room packed with established stars and a club still searching for rhythm. The timing was awkward, the expectations enormous.

He barely had a chance to breathe.

Three senior appearances for City, one of them an FA Cup final, told their own story about how quickly he was thrown in. That day ended in defeat to Crystal Palace, a harsh stage on which to learn the nuances of English football. His most memorable moment in sky blue came far from Manchester, at the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, when he stepped up and bent a 20-yard free-kick against Al Ain, the ball kissing the underside of the bar in a 6–0 win. One strike, one glimpse of why City had moved for him in the first place.

Then the door closed. The squad grew heavier with world-class talent, and Echeverri found himself squeezed to the margins.

A misstep in Germany

City’s solution was obvious: a loan. Within the City Football Group structure, Girona looked the natural destination, a place where young technicians are trusted and minutes are available. Club officials pushed for Catalonia.

His camp chose Germany.

Bayer Leverkusen offered the allure of the Bundesliga and a different kind of test. On paper, it looked bold. On grass, it quickly turned into a stall.

Across the first half of the 2025/26 season, Echeverri managed just 270 minutes in 11 appearances. He spent far more time watching than playing, an unused substitute in seven of the 13 league matches for which he was available. For a 20-year-old whose game relies on rhythm, touches and confidence, those numbers cut deep.

Kasper Hjulmand, Leverkusen’s manager, read the situation clearly. Together with Manchester City, he agreed to end the loan early. It was not a failure of talent so much as a mismatch of timing and opportunity. Echeverri needed a pitch, not a bench.

Girona, at last, and a player reborn

January brought a reset. Back into the City Football Group network, this time with Girona, Echeverri finally landed where many at City had wanted him all along.

In Spain, the picture changed. The minutes started to stack up, the ball began to find his feet in dangerous areas again. Across 17 La Liga appearances, he scored once and assisted once, both contributions arriving in the same match against Athletic Club in March. On paper, the numbers are modest. On the pitch, the story is different.

At Girona, he has found something he never truly had at Leverkusen or in that whirlwind spell in Manchester: continuity. Starts, substitutions, repeated involvement. The kind of steady exposure that sharpens decision-making and rebuilds belief. His intensity has climbed, his workload has grown, and with it his reputation has started to recover across the continent.

Monza circle as Europe takes note

That resurgence has not gone unnoticed. According to reports in Italy, AC Monza sporting director Nicolas Burdisso has made no secret of his admiration. He wants Echeverri in Serie A next season, and Monza are watching closely as the summer approaches.

It would almost certainly be another loan. For City, that poses a familiar dilemma. Keep him close and risk stalling his development again, or send him back into European football where the demands are high but the minutes more likely?

Right now, the logic points towards another move. Echeverri’s current trajectory at Girona – the gradual increase in playing time, the rise in physical load, the exposure to different tactical problems – is exactly the kind of education that could turn raw promise into the finished product City believed they were signing from River Plate.

His future at the Etihad is far from clear, but the path is. If he keeps stacking elite-level experiences, whether in Spain, Italy or elsewhere, the player City thought they were getting in 2025 may yet walk back through their door – only this time with the scars, and the seasoning, to stay.