Pep Guardiola could not hide his delight with Man City’s number two goalkeeper and knows the 23-year-old will probably want to move on if he cannot be guaranteed a Premier League place

There was a moment shortly before the late thrills of Manchester City’s FA Cup semi-final win when a long ball out of Southampton’s massed defensive ranks threatened to give Finn Azaz his first chance of the match. John Stones was caught flat-footed but James Trafford had anticipated the issue and came a good 35 yards to deal with the situation.

He did not deal with it by returning the long ball in kind – instead, he hit a first-time, shortish pass to a team-mate. And the only time Pep Guardiola showed more animated appreciation for one of his players’ actions was when Nico Gonzalez hit his laser-guided winner.

Guardiola skipped 15 yards along the touchline to show his acclaim for Trafford’s anticipation and calmness. And post-match, the pair were in animated conversation, Trafford appearing to tell his manager that he was not far from getting a fingertip to the strike that gave Azaz his Wembley goal.

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Trafford’s last three games have been at Wembley – two for City and one for England. And almost certainly, his next appearance will be at Wembley, in the FA Cup final on May 16.

The question of whether that will be his last appearance for City is becoming more pertinent by the day. Trafford was not overly busy in the semi-final but it was another assured display and there was an important save to keep the scoreline at 1-1.

Not only is it now accepted wisdom that Trafford is too good to be a number two, but the list of elite clubs that would sign him if he were available grows and grows. His rating is now so high that it would probably be easier to list the powerhouse teams who would NOT take Trafford.

He has not played a Premier League game in eight months but will be the back-up to Jordan Pickford at the World Cup. Some shrewd judges believe he will be England’s number one sooner rather than later. A lot sooner.

But for his career progression, Trafford cannot start next season as a reserve keeper. Simple as that. As much as their post-match talk showed mutual admiration, even the attraction of working for Pep as a cup keeper cannot be enough for Trafford.

He might yet end up being one of the stars of two cup finals but the bottom line is that it has still been an unsatisfactory season for Trafford. Bought back from Burnley for £30million, he was jettisoned from the number one spot after only three games when City swooped for Gianluigi Donnarumma. The domestic cup runs to two finals have helped but that still hurts.

So, what is the solution? Either Trafford looks for a way out or City sell Donnarumma. The idea that City might decide Trafford is, after all, a better option than Donnarumma, seems pretty outlandish. And anyway, that decision will be down to Guardiola, or whoever is manager next season.

Donnarumma has a big-game presence, a winner’s mentality. But Trafford – despite being four years younger than the Italian – has greater composure and is probably more accomplished in his distribution.

Guardiola clearly loves Trafford and loves the way he has handled the demotion. And for the start of next season, the Blues boss knows he will have to play him or sell him. Simple as that.

Chennai Super Kings XI vs GT: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh.

Sarfaraz Khan drops to the bench. Mukesh Choudhary may come in as the Impact.

Here, in ascending order, is DataGolf’s official ranking of the best amateur golfers since 2010.

Four, Patrick Cantlay; three, Jordan Spieth; two, Jon Rahm … and one, Jackson Koivun.

Wait, what?

Yep, on Friday afternoon, the 20-year-old junior at Auburn University watched his career enter historic trajectory. The principle act was Koivun’s victory at the 2026 SEC Championship, his third SEC Championship in as many collegiate seasons, making him the first player in more than 50 years to accomplish the three-peat.

In doing so, Koivun also moved into first of DataGolf’s all-time Amateur Golfers ranking, which uses strokes gained data to quantify a collegiate player’s skill relative to their fellow division 1 competitors. The ranking, which has captured all amateur golf data since 2010, helps to quantify Koivun’s success at the collegiate level next to some of the stars that have emerged from the NCAA over the last two decades. Now, that ranking has a new job: To quantify just how much better Koivun has been than each of those players.

Per the DataGolf ranking, Koivun’s strokes gained index of +3.25 ranks nearly a tenth of a shot (.09) better than Jon Rahm’s decorated amateur career at Arizona State, and .14 shots better than Jordan Spieth’s at the University of Texas, which springboarded the young Texan into three major championships in the dawn of his pro career.

Of course, the evidence of Koivun ‘s prodigious skill goes much further than just DG. In less than three years at Auburn, Koivun is the program’s all-time winningest player with 10 victories, and is also the holder of the NCAA 36-hole scoring record (25 under), beating a three-decade-old mark set by none other than Tiger Woods. He’s also served as the anchor of a winning Walker Cup team (with three points earned), recorded a top 5 finish in just nine PGA Tour starts, and locked up his future Tour status by proxy of the PGA Tour University Accelerated program. All this to say nothing of his SEC Championship three-peat, which was the first since 1967.

In fact, Koivun has might be trending in an outright historic direction as an amateur player had he found more success in USGA events. At the time of this writing, the biggest gap between Koivun and some of the most decorated amateurs in golf history is his performance at the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur Championships. While the legends of yesteryear (Woods, Nicklaus, Mickelson) each recorded wins in the biggest amateur events (including, in Woods’ case, a record 18 straight matches), Koivun has yet to advance past the quarterfinals.

Should he retain his amateur status through the summer, Koivun should have at least one last chance at amateur glory. The U.S. Amateur will return to Merion outside of Philadelphia in mid-August — giving Koivun a chance to record at victory at one of the USGA’s most historic host sites before the PGA Tour fall season would provide no shortage of playing opportunities, should Koivun turn pro then.

Either way, the resume is already stacked for the next great young player to enter the PGA Tour from the amateur ranks. Whether you’re counting by stats or by hardware, it’s clear the list of most decorated amateurs of the modern era has added a new name: Koivun.