Published: 02:00, 25 October 2025 | Updated: 02:00, 25 October 2025

The world’s best goalkeeper walks into a small room and folds his enormous frame into a plastic chair. On his right cheek is a three-inch scar – a football boot to the face can do that – and on a table nearby is his first trophy in English football.

Gianluigi Donnarumma of Manchester City earned that first piece of silverware within an hour of wearing his new club’s colours for the first time. The Italian’s right-handed stretch to deny Bryan Mbeumo in September’s Manchester derby earned him the Premier League’s save of the month award.

‘Debuts are never easy, especially in a new league, and that was a big one,’ Donnarumma tells Daily Mail Sport in his first big English interview. ‘Actually, maybe I was a bit excited. But I think I managed it well.’

The transformation that has swept through Pep Guardiola’s City squad since last season’s difficulties probably peaked when Donnarumma arrived on the last day of the summer transfer window.

The 26-year-old won the Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain...