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Carlos Forbs was an unstoppable star for the Manchester City academy but he never played a first-team game before being sold to Ajax in 2023.
He might never have cracked the first team at Manchester City, but Carlos Forbs is still considered something of an example around the academy.
The Portuguese winger trained with the seniors under Pep Guardiola, but despite a stunning 2022/23 season for the Under-21s, he never even made a matchday squad for the Blues.
Despite that, his performances in front of sparse crowds at age-group level did enough to attract an army of talent spotters. During the summer window of 2023, he was the subject of a transfer tug-of-war between West Ham and Ajax, one that ended with the Amsterdam side paying £17.3million to sign him.
That was a huge fee for a player without a first-team game for his name, but for Ben Wilkinson, now in charge of the Under-21s at City, it was proof that even performances at that level could attract attention.
"Carlos had one year where he was electric in the Under-21s and at the end of the season there was a massive transfer fee to Ajax," he told the MEN last year.
"That is a massive carrot to the players. They know that if they can get it right with our games programme, the world is watching them.
"Everyone's recruitment stretches far and wide now and you see in the market the amount of transfer for younger players is growing year on year."
Forbs, who was known as Carlos Borges when he was at City, was certainly electric in that 2022/23 season. Playing on the left wing, he won the Premier League 2 Player of the Season award after scoring 29 goals and contributing 18 assists, a goal contribution every 55 minutes.
Highlights included four in a 6-1 win against Manchester United, a hat-trick against Sevilla in the UEFA Youth League and another treble against Derby County's first-team in the EFL Trophy.
At the end of the season, City put together a feature where their top scorers watched tapes of each other's goals. Erling Haaland had been watching.
"Is that Carlos? I've been training a lot with these guys. Carlos is good," Haaland said.
Forbs trained with the first team at times during that campaign and looked to learn from the wingers in front of him, although Sadio Mane was a particular idol and someone he based a lot of his game on.
The youngster looked up to Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez and tried to learn from them, while Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva were also welcoming when he moved into the senior environment.
But the quality of players ahead of him made regular first-team football unlikely. With Forbs clearly outgrowing Premier League 2 games, a move was always on the cards.
Ajax looked like a good fit, but they endured a difficult 2023/24 season. Forbs started five of six Europa League group games but only began eight of the club's 34 Eredivisie matches. In total, there were three goals and five assists in 32 games.
There was plenty of managerial change during that season and in the summer of 2024, Forbs returned to England, joining Wolves on a season-long loan that included the option to make it permanent for €13.5million.
He managed just 10 Premier League appearances, starting only once, and when Vitor Pereira replaced Gary O'Neil, he barely got a look in, with his countryman coach preferring to play a 3-4-2-1 that relied on wing-backs for width.
“He’s a winger, one against one. To do what I want in this system is difficult for him when we are defending. He doesn’t have the skill to go and come back to defend, it’s difficult," said Pereira.
“It’s not about his quality because he has quality, he’s strong one against one, he’s very fast. But in my system, he cannot play inside in between the lines because he doesn’t have these skills. And to play outside is a different profile of player.”
It was inevitable that Forbs would return to Ajax this summer, but what followed came as a surprise. In June, he was one of seven players informed over WhatsApp by the club's technical director, Alex Kroes, that he was no longer part of the plans and was "no longer welcome" on club premises during first-team activities.
It was a move that caused controversy in the Netherlands and angered the players' union, the VVCS. In a statement, they considered it to be "a form of improper employment and unnecessary public damage" to the players, who they labelled "victims of Ajax's failing policy."
It meant another new start for Forbs, who only turned 21 in March. He was an eye-catching signing for upwardly mobile Belgian side Club Brugge, and his €8.5million fee netted City around €1.7million as a result of a sell-on clause.
Playing for a third club in four seasons since leaving the Etihad, Forbs now looks to be finally turning the promise he showed at academy level at City into performances in senior football.
He has three goals and three assists in 14 games for Club Brugge, and Belgian publication Le Soir described his start to the season as "explosive" and "hard-hitting." He has also been impressing his teammates, with captain Hans Vanaken quick to spot how good Forbs looked.
"We all know his qualities," the skipper said. "He's incredibly fast and has great movement. He can play both on the left and right wings, which is practically impossible to defend. He's a real weapon for us."
There could yet be a reunion with City later in the Champions League and for Forbs it finally looks to be clicking, two years on from a sale that shows what is possible for the club's youngsters.
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