7 former Man City players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024
It’s pretty difficult to get into Manchester City’s team. Phil Foden was in and out for a long time, and Phil Foden is class at football. Jack Grealish was a superstar at Aston Villa and cost City a cool £100million, yet he spends more time on the bench than the pitch these days.
The point is, many players join City’s ranks and leave them without too much of a fuss. That’s just the way it is. If you’re trying to take Kevin De Bruyne’s place in the starting XI, or outscore Erling Haaland, you’re going to be trying for a very long time.
We’ve picked out seven former City players we’re surprised to see are still playing football for a living around the world. First up, a striker from the early stages of the big-money era.
Jo
The 6’3″ Brazilian arrived at City off the back of a couple of pretty decent seasons with CSKA Moscow. His first season in Russia was especially impressive, but by the time he arrived in Manchester, he was averaging just under a goal every two games.
The English Premier League and the Russian Premier League are entirely different beasts, though. Jo was about to find that out the hard way. During his spell as a Manchester City player, he went on loan to Everton twice, and spent half a season on loan to Galatasaray.
Jo managed just 21 league appearances for City and one lonely goal over three seasons. Since then, he’s turned out for teams in the UAE, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and several in his native Brazil, including current side Amazonas. He’s still going at 37, which is no mean feat, to be fair.
John Guidetti
Could’ve sworn we signed John Guidetti on Football Manager 1977. That’s just a little joke—obviously it was still Championship Manager back then.
For real, though, feels like the Swede should’ve been long retired by now. The man is 32. John Guidetti is 32 years of age. Can’t believe it. Feels like a lie. He made one senior appearance for City—a League Cup game in the 2010-11 season.
Guidetti is a quarter Italian, an eighth Brazilian, and the rest of him is Swedish. He grew up playing football in the slums of Kenya, has played all over Europe, and is now at beautifully kitted out AIK in his native Sweden.
In 2015, a Swedish band wrote a number hit about him called ‘Johnny G (The John Guidetti Song)’, which is weird because he spent the first half of 2015 at Celtic and the second half at Celta Vigo.
Dedryck Boyata
Dedryck is a sick first name, let’s get that out of the way straight off. Dedryck Boyata. Class.
The Belgian international centre-back made his City debut in 2010, but never managed to truly break into the starting XI. After a couple of loans, Boyata did go onto establish himself at Celtic and then Hertha Berlin.
Despite spending quite a lot of money, Hertha have been astonishingly sh*t recently, and Dedryck jumped ship to Club Brugge in Belgium just before Hertha sank despairingly into the Bundesliga 2. He’s still in Belgium as we write.
Scott Sinclair
Another must-sign player of a bygone era of Football Manager games, Scott Sinclair has played for fourteen separate clubs during his career. If you can name them all, get to your local pub quiz immediately.
Sinclair’s career started at Bristol Rovers, aged 15, and that’s where he’s plying his trade now, 20 years later. Back with the Gas.
The tragedy of Scott Sinclair is that he grew up supporting Manchester United, and they’re pretty much the only team in England he hasn’t played for. You hate to see it.
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Stefan Savic
Savic joined City in 2011, aged 20, shortly after his father, who was president of the municipal assembly in Mojkovac (in their native Montenegro) died by suicide. Savic might still be the only Partizan player that Red Star Belgrade ultras have held banners of support for.
He spent one year at Manchester City before they swapped him for Fiorentina’s Matija Nastasic. Three years in beautiful Florence got Savic’s career back on track and, in 2015, he embarked upon a nine-year spell at the heart of Atletico Madrid’s defence under the command of Diego Simeone.
In 2024, Savic signed for Trabzonspor in the Turkish Super Lig. He’s 33 now, so he’s probably still got a few years left in the tank.
Eliaquim Mangala
Former French international Mangala looked like he might cement a starting XI place in his first two seasons at City. He was a Premier League and European regular, but his third City season saw him loaned to Valencia.
Mangala nabbed himself a Premier League winners’ medal in 2017-18 after just about meeting the threshold for appearances, but that was all she wrote for the Frenchman, who left the club a season later.
It never really clicked for the centre-back again, and a series of loan spells and transfers see Mangala playing for Estoril in the Portuguese Primeira Liga in 2024. Hopefully Portugal provides the footballing home the Frenchman has been searching for.
Edin Dzeko
He’s a brilliant striker, Edin Dzeko. Properly underrated if you ask us. Won the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg, a couple of Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, and a League Cup with City, a couple of Coppa Italias with Inter, and he’s been top scorer in both Serie A and the Bundesliga.
The 6’3″ Bosnian purveyor of fine goals became a favourite at Roma, and was a superb foil for Lautaro Martinez at Inter. In 2023, Dzeko signed for Fenerbahce, where he’s ramped up the scoring even further.
He’s notched up 25 league goals in 40 appearances in the Turkish Super Lig, and shows no sign of stopping despite the fact he’ll turn 39 before the end of the season. Hell of a player.