Pep Guardiola is likely to hand goalkeeper Zack Steffen his Manchester City debut next month.
And if the new Blues number two shows any reluctance, the manager might just need to take along a big bag of sweets!
After all, that tactic worked for his neatly-named mum Stephanie Steffen – and without some delicious bribery, the USA international’s meteoric career might never have taken off.
City will install Steffen as their new number two between the sticks after Claudio Bravo’s four-year stay came to an end this week.
Unless Guardiola abandons his usual practice, Steffen is set to make his first appearance for the club in the third round of the Carabao Cup, in a little over a month's time.
That competition gave Bravo, and before him Willy Caballero, shots at redemption in their City careers, and both men took those chances with heroics in penalty shoot-outs en route to Wembley triumphs.
Steffen has already earned himself Brownie points with City fans in penalty shoot-outs, by saving a spot-kick from from Wayne Rooney, as his former club Columbus Crew beat the former Manchester United man’s DC United in a play-off game.
It could all have been so different. The young Zack Steffen was a reluctant footballer who needed cajoling and tempting into going to games.
“Those first couple seasons were a little dicey,” his mum told ussoccer.com.
“For the first year or two, he would cry getting out of the car before every game because he didn’t want to go out on the field. It was way out of his comfort zone.
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“He didn’t know any of the kids. It was very scary so we’d have to kind of talk him off the ledge and promise a lot of treats after the game and eventually he would get out on the field and have a good time.”
Steffen was a defender in junior football, but fate took a hand when he was ten years old and his West Chester United team’s regular keeper did not turn up for a game.
He donned the gloves, and was a natural – and his undoubted ability as an outfield player would – like new teammate Ederson – prove to be a big plus in his later years.
Steffen’s closeness to his mum, stepdad, two brothers and two sisters was tested when he left the comfort of US college soccer, leaving Maryland Terrapins to pitch into the unknown with Freiburg’s reserve team in the German fourth division.
His first stay in Europe lasted a few months, as his relegation to the second team, extreme homesickness and the language barrier took their toll.
“I thought I would go over there, and everything would be glamorous,” he said.
His mum Stephanie added: “He and our family have a lot of lessons that we learned from the time he was there.
“And I give him a lot of credit for gutting it out for as long as he did because I know it was a real challenging time for him.”
Steffen returned to the US a few months later, in the summer of 2017, to join Columbus Crew, but was made third-choice and loaned out to Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
The following year saw him establish himself as the main man for the Crew, and he has not looked back since.
He established a new club record by going 525 minutes without conceding a goal and was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.
His form excited interest from Bristol City, who had a £3.7million bid turned down for him – and then City made their move, agreeing a £5.2million fee which allowed him to stay with Crew until last summer.
The fee was a record for an MLS keeper, but Steffen was loaned out to Fortuna Dusseldorf after joining the Blues.
He made an instant impact with the Bundesliga outfit, with the club’s football director Lutz Pfannenstiel – himself a former professional keeper who incredibly played for 27 clubs in 15 different countries – eulogising about his abilities.
“Zack Steffen is a modern goalkeeper who has everything,”said Pfannenstiel.
“He's technically good, strong in one-on-ones and a great footballer. It's not without reason that Manchester City have decided to give him a long-term contract.
“Steffen has all the ingredients. He has a very clean goalkeeper technique. Good reactions, good hands, and demanding in the box. His distribution and game-opening make him a modern keeper. Normally, we wouldn’t be able to get a keeper of that calibre on the open market.”
