Floyd Samba, 17, scores twice on Manchester City debut as Allan also nets in 5-0 win

Floyd Samba, 17, made his Manchester City first-team debut on Thursday 17 September 2026 and scored twice in a 5-0 win over Norwich City at the Etihad Stadium in the third round of the Carabao Cup. An academy graduate who joined the club at under-9 level, Samba played centre-forward in place of the rested Erling Haaland and, according to Opta, scored with both of his shots on target.

Brazilian winger Allan, signed from Palmeiras at the end of August, also made his debut that night, setting up Samba's first goal and scoring the third. Argentine goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli played for the first time too and kept a clean sheet. Enzo Maresca made ten changes from the 1-0 win at Manchester United the previous Sunday, and his much-changed side still dominated: according to Opta, City had 65.9% of possession and Norwich did not manage a single shot on target.

The goals

The teenager was involved early, setting up Rico Lewis in the ninth minute for a shot that flew just off target. The opener came on 29 minutes. Allan sent a loose ball back into the box, and Samba headed it in. Three minutes later Rayan Cherki made it two on the counter-attack.

Early in the second half, on 48 minutes, Allan cut inside from the left of the box and drove a low shot home. On 54 minutes Samba took a pass from Rayan Aït-Nouri and curled it into the corner. Ryan McAidoo, another academy product who had come on at half-time, completed the scoring on 90 minutes. Norwich had the ball in the net in the second half through Mohamed Touré, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Norwich, of the Championship, English football's second tier, had also rung the changes: manager Philippe Clement made nine from the side beaten away at Middlesbrough. Their starting line-up included two City academy graduates, goalkeeper Daniel Grimshaw and Jacob Wright. "After 20 minutes, Man City started to get a little bit annoyed because they could not create. Then you get the first goal and we need to do better on that cross. Then on a transition they get a second goal; we were naive," Clement said, in comments reported by Sky Sports.

A midfielder used as a makeshift No. 9

Samba is a midfielder by trade. According to ESPN, in September 2026 he described himself as a box-to-box No. 8 who modelled his game on Paul Pogba, and he had not played regularly as a forward since the under-10s. Maresca said that when he decided to play him as a centre-forward, in the three or four days before the game, he asked the teenager whether he had ever played there, and was told he never had.

In the interview published by the club, the manager said Samba was not a No. 9 but "was good, he is young full of energy, he is strong, he can finish and he made some good decisions". Maresca added that he was pleased with the whole performance, not just the two goals, and that "hopefully we can give him more chances", but that the club has to go slowly with its young players.

The goals came as no surprise to those who follow City's academy. In the 2025/26 season, according to the club, Samba scored 17 goals and provided 6 assists in 24 appearances, and he scored a free kick in the FA Youth Cup final, won 2-1 against Manchester United. He is the son of former defender Christopher Samba, best known for his spell at Blackburn Rovers from 2007 to 2012, and the brother of Tyrone, who was also in City's academy in September 2026. According to Sky Sports, his father watched the debut from the stands.

The German federation called him up for its under-19 side for the Five Nations Tournament, scheduled for 22 September to 4 October 2026 in Spain. In a profile published on the day of his debut, however, City described him as an England youth international, and ESPN reported on 18 September that he had already been called up by England, France and Germany and had not yet made his choice.

Samba told BBC Radio 5 Live, in comments published by City, that getting "a debut like that is mind blowing", that he could not believe it himself and that it was "just the beginning, I've got a big career ahead of me". In the same interview, he said the first-team players had "all been brilliant with me" before the game, "giving me advice, like 'play your game, be you'", and that "those words gave me confidence and helped me score those two goals today".

Of the three academy players Maresca had promoted to the first-team squad, Samba was the only one yet to make his debut. On the eve of the game, the manager noted that Ryan McAidoo had already played twice in the Premier League, and Kaden Braithwaite against Crystal Palace. Against Norwich, all three played: McAidoo scored the fifth goal, and Braithwaite replaced Allan on 71 minutes.

Allan's debut

Allan Andrade Elias was announced by City on 31 August 2026, aged 22, on a five-year contract running to the summer of 2031. In the announcement, the club described him as a winger who plays predominantly on the right. As of 18 September 2026, neither City nor Palmeiras had disclosed the fee. According to Brazilian outlet ge, the deal was worth 40 million euros, 37.5 million fixed and 2.5 million in add-ons, making it the third-biggest sale in Palmeiras history at the time, behind Estêvão's move to Chelsea and Endrick's to Real Madrid.

Against Norwich, Allan set up Samba's goal, scored his own on 48 minutes and was replaced on 71. "Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine a debut like this," he told ge. Maresca noted that the first minutes at home are always complicated and that it was important for the Brazilian to see that English football is a little different from South American football. Another former Palmeiras player, defender Vitor Reis, who made the same move in January 2025, was also in the side.

Six wins in a row

It was City's sixth straight win under Maresca, Pep Guardiola's successor, and their fourth clean sheet in a row. According to ESPN, the manager said he was very happy with the six games in a row, but that the focus was only on the next one. The run began after a defeat: the Italian's first competitive game was a 3-0 loss to Arsenal in the Community Shield, in Cardiff.

City won the previous edition of the Carabao Cup in March 2026, beating Arsenal 2-0 at Wembley. Following the EFL draw made on 16 September, they host Brighton at the Etihad in the fourth round, in the week beginning 26 October. Before that, they face Sunderland on Sunday 20 September in the Premier League, their last game before the international break.