Sávio’s Girona Journey: The Road To Manchester City

The last place you’d expect to find a “footballing fairytale” is Girona. The Spanish side is among City Football Group (CFG)’s ever-increasing portfolio of clubs around the globe: 44.3% owned by CFG; another 44.3% by a group led by Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola’s brother, Pere.

Girona’s recent successes have been supported by this relationship, with a consistent influx of loan players from CFG assisting the club in securing their place in La Liga for the first time in their 93-year history.

This season, however, they have exceeded expectations with an impressive early run that placed them squarely in the title race captivating neutral fans along the way, before eventually dropping back to third place behind Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Girona has been playing some of the best-attacking football anywhere in the world this term and, with a stadium capacity just short of 15,000, seeing them live has become a privileged experience.

At the center of it all is Sávio, also known as Savinho, a 19-year-old Brazilian winger on loan from Ligue 2 club Troyes, which is also part of the CFG group.

He has rapidly risen to prominence, impressing so much that Manchester City has secured his services permanently for an initial fee of €25 million, with the possibility of an additional €15 million in bonuses this summer

It marks a remarkable and rapid rise for a player whose stock could barely have been lower just 12 months ago.

A rare modern mystery

Raised in the countryside of Espírito Santo, Sávio helped his family on his grandparents’ farm before becoming a footballer. “We grew okra, lettuce. I drank milk and liked riding horses, but weeding in the hot sun is bad,” he told ESPN Brasil recently. “Every holiday I go back there and work because it’s something I enjoy.”

Sávio distinguished himself on the football field from a young age, with his name honoring former Brazilian international winger Sávio Bortolini, who had a notable career playing for clubs like Real Madrid and Flamengo from 1993 to 2010.

After relocating with his family to Vitória and beginning to play at school, Sávio caught the attention of scouts and joined the youth academy of Brazilian powerhouse Atlético Mineiro in 2018, where he signed his first professional contract two years later.

Troyes acquired the then-18-year-old for an initial of €6 million from Atlético Mineiro in 2022. Having spent less than 1000 minutes for the first team since his senior debut in 2020, it’s understandable that he seemed like somewhat of a mystery to many when he arrived in Europe.

But just when he had a chance to showcase his talent on a wider stage, a loan spell at PSV Eindhoven was badly interrupted by hamstring troubles and he managed just 95 Eredivisie minutes in his first European season.

The following year, he was loaned to Girona. When asked to describe the circumstances of the Brazilian’s arrival last summer, Opta Analyst Robbie Dunne shared with ESPN, “Honestly, not many [in Spain] knew who he was. They [Girona] had lost Rodrigo Riquelme [who returned to Atlético after his loan spell], who played on the left wing, and it was widely accepted that whoever replaced him wouldn’t be as good.

“They signed Pablo Torre [from Barcelona] on loan and he played a bit of left-wing in the preseason, so it felt like even Girona didn’t know what they had in Sávio at the time. It was a gamble that has paid off.”

In short, Sávio’s move to Girona felt like a lot of the other CFG loans such as those of Yangel Herrera or Pablo Maffeo in that it was a case of rearranging pieces across the portfolio and seeing what might happen. At the surface level, it was a standard transfer like so many before it.

But after the 2022-23 season turned out to be such a non-event for the winger, he has caught many by surprise by making such an explosive impact.

What sets him apart?

With 11 goals and 10 assists from 41 games in all competitions, Sávio has shown himself to be one of the most productive attacking players in La Liga this season.

Sávio Moreira de Oliveira scored the wining goal against Rayo Vallecano

The confidence he exudes when maneuvering past opposing full-backs is staggering, using a variety of moves to beat them and create space, while he looks like he’s been comfortable at the elite level for years.

He has a somewhat anachronistic style for the modern game, primarily a left-footer who excels on the left flank, where he has spent about 80% of his playing time so far.

Sávio Moreira de Oliveira touches in La Liga

However, Sávio is also capable of performing as an inverted winger on the right, a role he frequently occupied during his time in Brazil.

Typically, he tends to stay close to the touchline, preserving the width of the pitch and aiming to isolate his opposing full-back. With a footballing foundation rooted in Brazil, he possesses a handful of tricks, including a sharp stop-start maneuver, but he generally favors knocking the ball into space and using his speed to race past defenders whenever possible.

Sávio regularly creates space between himself and his marker, opening up opportunities to either shoot or deliver a pass, and is refreshingly unselfish in these situations as evidenced by the fact he’s averaging only 1.38 shots per 90 minutes in La Liga.

Sávio Moreira de Oliveira Stat

His impact has been so remarkable that it has led to stylistic comparisons with both Real Madrid’s Vinícius Jr. and Athletic Club’s Nico Williams, a testament to his impressive performance given their accomplishments.

In La Liga, he completed 102 dribbles, making him the youngest player to surpass 100-mark since a certain Lionel Messi, who recorded 106 in the 2008-09 season.

Indeed, Girona coach Michel knew the Catalan minnows would have a great season in La Liga after watching Savio’s first training session with the team.

“Savio is the player that has had the biggest impact,” Michel said. “He is the best player I’ve ever coached. The impact he’s had has been amazing. I was stunned when I saw him in action in the first training session and I told [Girona sporting director] Quique Carcel that we would finish in the top eight and, look, we’ve done even better.

“We are living a dream because we have only been in the first division for four years and in the 2021-22 campaign we were in the second division.”

What’s next?

The key question for this summer is whether Sávio will be loaned back to Girona to participate in what appears to be the club’s first Champions League campaign, or if he will integrated into Guardiola’s squad right away to compete with Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Jérémy Doku for one of the two wide positions in the City starting XI.

Sávio could certainly provide a different profile to the City squad if he sticks around, offering the same footed-left wing presence that Leroy Sané used to, or that Foden has on occasion since the Germany international left for Bayern Munich. From that berth, he’d offer explosivity and trickery, in a way mixing the skillsets of Doku and Grealish.

Guardiola currently doesn’t utilize that style of winger; the closest he has is Doku, who is typically deployed as an inverted winger on the left. However, Guardiola is known for his tactical adaptability, often making changes to keep the team fresh and unpredictable.

While it may be challenging to predict Sávio’s potential role at this moment, the situation could change significantly by August, potentially making him a seamless fit within the team.

Regardless of how City ultimately decides to utilize him, the narrative surrounding Sávio’s move is markedly different from the one he faced less than a year ago. He is not a hidden gem; Sávio emerged into the spotlight.