Yan Couto says a personal guarantee of first team football from Pep Guardiola persuaded him to change his mind from joining Barcelona and sign for Manchester City.
Couto, 17, completed his transfer to City earlier this year for an initial fee of €6m, with the fee set to double if he makes five Premier League or Champions League appearances for the Blues.
The right-back was set to move to Manchester this month after finishing the season with Coritiba, but the global pandemic means he remains in Brazil and is more likely to join in August or September.
When he does finally join his new teammates at the City Football Academy, Couto says he has been assured of getting the chance to break into the City first team after Guardiola personally intervened just before he was set to join Barca.
He told Globo Esporte : "Right at the beginning of negotiations with City, first hand, they wanted to loan me [out]. But it was not what I wanted and so I had a preference for Bayern and Barcelona, who would use me in the first team.
"When it was alright to go to Barça, I had already decided, at the last minute Pep saw my games, he really liked my style of play, what I did at the Worlds [Under-17 World Cup]. Then my representative at City, Cadu, asked why he was going to Barça… So he managed to get me to the first team at City and go to play with Pep, who had the opportunity to do the pre-season with Guardiola.
"I know that I am new, that they have great selection players in the squad, I know that I have to be patient, that I have to evolve, adapt in Europe, but I think that in a short time I may be playing, entering games, playing in Cups."
The confident teenager visited City before the lockdown to finalise his move, where he met with the club's other South American stars.
And Couto revealed how another conversation with Guardiola challenged him to improve his English - with a little dig at Gabriel Jesus.
He continued: "I met the people a little, the club, but there are still a lot of people to meet and become friends with them. I met Pep Guardiola, Gabriel Jesus, Éderson, Agüero.
"I haven't even talked to everyone yet, but it was great to see how they are. They are good people and I was super happy with the way they received me.
"I had a conversation with [Guardiola], at City, after a training session that I went to follow. He came to talk to me, welcomed me, was very happy with my choice. He said that I am a great player, that I am very promising.
"He also said that I have to practice my English, which has to be better than Gabriel Jesus' when he arrived. He was really, really happy. Then Fernando and Gabriel arrived and we talked together. I can't wait to be with them. I confess I was a little nervous, we see it in the video game, on television."
