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Cole Palmer has a McDonald’s burger in his hands as he prepares for his first newspaper interview. He takes a bite before handing the box over to his agent. He looks for all the world like a normal 20-year-old lad from Manchester.

He is, but he is also the forward Pep Guardiola described as ‘special’ and the player tipped to be the next Manchester City superstar.

But right now, he is unhappy with his rating in the video game FIFA 23. ‘Sixty seven… could have been a bit higher,’ Palmer tells Sportsmail. Asked which areas he would have liked a better score, he replies: ‘All of them!’

It is clear from the first minutes of this interview that Palmer is a reserved and down to earth young man. His personality off the pitch is in contrast to his performances on it. Anyone who has watched him live will recognise that he is a confident, mature and exceedingly gifted player.

Palmer has made 21 first-team appearances, having made his debut in 2020. A first senior goal in the EFL Cup last year was quickly followed by his first in the Champions League. In January he was man of the match as he scored and assisted in an FA Cup third-round tie at Swindon.

His goal that night led to one of the best post-match interviews of last season. ‘I’m delighted, Prem soon come,’ Palmer told the ITV cameras, referring to the fact that he only had the league left to crack. Fans loved his nonchalant response. One supporter was even seen wearing a ‘Prem soon come’ T-shirt at City’s pre-season tour of the USA.

‘If you’re from my area what I said was not like, mad,’ Palmer laughs. ‘But to everyone else they might think, “What’s he on about?” It’s just slang from where I’m from. I didn’t think too much of it but then afterwards it blew up and I was thinking, “Oh, my days!” Everyone was laughing about it.’

Palmer’s earliest memories of football are training with his dad every night in the local park. ‘He’d teach me little things I didn’t know how to do,’ says Palmer. ‘The first thing we did was protecting the ball. From then, just shooting.

‘Put him in the net and I’d blast the ball at him. He was all right, but I’d rip him now if I played against him!’

Despite his slight build, Palmer is deceptively tall, standing at 6ft 2in. But growing up the forward was the smallest player on his team, not that it hampered his development.

‘When I was little I used to want to be big so I could just kick it past everyone,’ Palmer says. ‘There was a kid across the road from me when I was growing up who was older than me and he was pretty good at football.

‘I was speaking with my dad not long ago and we were saying if he didn’t live there I probably wouldn’t be as good as I am because he was bigger than me. I had to learn how to play football. Now I’m older I’ve realised it was probably better it worked out like that.’

Palmer cannot

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