There has always been something endearing about Oleksandr Zinchenko. He perseveres when others give up, he won’t hear the word ‘no’.

He is light-hearted, quick-witted and — increasingly evident over the last two years — not bad at his job.

So for those who know him well, watching Zinchenko embrace his pregnant wife, television reporter Vlada, after winning man of the match as captain in Ukraine’s historic Euros win at Hampden Park will have been a seminal moment.

He has become the darling of his country, who face England in their first-ever Euros quarter-final on Saturday. He is their best player — a man who acts as an ambassador on foreign shores. During Manchester City’s frequent trophy lifts, he is often draped in the blue and yellow national flag.

When City faced Shakhtar Donetsk in a Champions League game three years ago, Zinchenko — who knew he was not even making Pep Guardiola’s squad the following night — sat inside the Metalist Stadium fielding a barrage of questions from a feverish media who hung on his every word.

The majority of inquisitors also implored Guardiola to talk about their local boy done good.

He was already Ukraine’s youngest goalscorer, beating legendary current manager Andriy Shevchenko’s record. And this was all before Zinchenko had hit his stride in England.

He was barely a bit-part player at that point and City had told him he was free to leave three months earlier. Wolves had a deal in place but the youngster refused to go. He had made his feelings clear towards the end of the club’s pre-season tour of America, declaring that City was his ‘dream’ and that he was going nowhere.

There were eyebrows raised, City staff wondering why he was desperate to remain somewhere he simply would not play. Zinchenko has proved them all wrong. Since then, he has started each season as a squad player and ended it as Guardiola’s first-choice left back.

Zinchenko became used to taking knocks from a young age. At a failed trial at an academy in Radomyshl, the other kids would not pass the ball to their smaller, slighter peer. Despite eventually making his way to Shakhtar’s academy, leaving his family 500 miles away at the age of 13, Zinchenko fled to Russia when war broke out in 2017.

Now he is a modern left back but then he was an attacking midfielder without a club, playing on the streets in Moscow when Shakhtar refused to release him from his contract.

He had captained their Under 19 team and left Ukraine with his family a few months after losing to Arsenal in a UEFA Youth League tie. Zinchenko went 18 months without playing football at a crucial stage of his development.

FC Ufa spotted him — it was there he first dabbled with being a left back — and City’s scouting network identified a prospect who would cost £1.7million. Zinchenko was signed as what City call an ‘emerging talent’.

Those players will go on loan, with the likes of Joleon Lescott regularly checking their progress. Reaching Guardiola’s squad is a tall order and plenty are eventually sold on for profit. It is a model for which City are criticised but believe shapes careers as well as aiding them financially.

Zinchenko, now used as an example of what can be achieved, went to PSV Eindhoven within weeks of arriving in 2016.

His year at PSV was not good. Rarely featuring, he publicly took aim at the management. Most would never come back from that at the Etihad Stadium, so the fact Zinchenko has three Premier League title medals is astonishing.

He has signed a new contract until 2024 and started May’s Champions League defeat by Chelsea, face-planting the Porto grass in tears at full-time.

The camp like him. That he could be a doppelganger for Kevin De Bruyne is a source of fun in the dressing room.

He has settled in the area with Vlada and their two French bulldogs, Louie and Mia.

Zinchenko visits the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Cheetham Hill and enjoys a cheeky relationship with Guardiola.

Vlada criticised the manager after City lost to Lyon last year and, when Zinchenko wished him a happy 50th birthday in January, Guardiola replied: ‘Aleks, the most important thing for me is to be liked by your wife.’

Weeks later, the full back publicly declared that City could sweep the Quadruple.

That was a big no-no with Guardiola, who came back deadpan: ‘I cannot agree with Mr Zinchenko.’

Zinchenko does not mess about with his words. The new hero of Ukraine is the unlikely people’s champion at City.