Where are they now? The 8 players Man City have sold for over £30million
Manchester City are not a selling club. They’re not really interested in buying low, developing talent, and selling on for a profit—that’s just not their game.
Having said that, they have many of the best players on the planet amongst their ranks, so when they do leave, even if that’s at the back end of a contract or a career, the figures are fairly large.
With Julian Alvarez on the verge of becoming their largest-ever sale if he signs on the dotted line for Atletico Madrid as expected, we’ve rounded up the eight players Man City have sold for over £30million.
Note: It’s in Euros because that’s what Transfermarkt—that eternal fountain of data—deals in, and figuring out conversion rates relative to the exact time the player was sold becomes murky business indeed.
Riyad Mahrez – €35m
When Leicester City won the Premier League title in 2016, their squad was inevitably going to be picked apart like the carcass of a particularly large antelope in the savannah.
Hyenas, vultures, lions, all chowing down on the still-twitching glorious beast, prising away big Kante, Mahrez, and Drinkwater-shaped chunks of flesh.
A sum of £60million was enough for Manchester City to get hold of the Foxes star winger in 2018, two full seasons after Mahrez and Leicester’s title triumph.
In 2023, the Algerian was sold to Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia for €35m, where he plays alongside Roberto Firmino, Franck Kessie, Gabri Veiga, Mehri Demiral, and Edouard Mendy.
Mahrez is 33 now, so you’d expect this is near the end of the road for a flair winger like himself.
Oleksandr Zinchenko – €35m
City signed Zinchenko from a Russian team called FC Ufa. He cost City just £1.7million back in 2016, and that proved to be a bargain.
He never fully managed to nail down that starting place in City’s team, but then very few do.
He was perhaps too versatile for his own good, with the positional capabilities of a Football Manager regen—left-back for his club, central attacking midfielder for the Ukrainian national team.
The perennially youthful Zinchenko signed for Arsenal in 2022, where he’s become an inverted left-back, combining all of his best qualities, which seems like a bit of a masterstroke from Mikel Arteta.
Zinchenko is somehow still only 27, and has plenty of years ahead of him, you’d hope.
Danilo – €37m
Danilo, as in Danilo Luiz da Silva, the Brazilian defender-cum-midfielder who joined City for £26.5million in 2017, only spent two years at the Etihad before moving on.
He signed around the same time as Kyle Walker, and Kyle Walker is also pretty good at football, so it never really worked out for the Brazilian.
By 2019, Danilo was sold to Juventus as part of an exchange deal for Joao Cancelo. He’s still in Turin in 2024, where he has become the first non-Italian captain of the Bianconeri since 1965.
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Cole Palmer – €47m
When Palmer signed for Chelsea on 1st September 2023, the consensus was that this was just a random, late-window burst of panic from the Blues.
The Englishman’s talent and potential was there for all to see, but he’d made just 19 Premier League appearances for City and had never scored a goal in the competition.
Cut to the end of the season and Ice Cold Cole had 22 Premier League goals in 33 appearances for Chelsea and was England’s not-so-secret weapon off the bench to swing big games in their favour.
If we were Chelsea, we’d just be playing for penalties this season. The kid doesn’t miss.
Leroy Sane – €49m
City brought in the rapid German winger from Schalke for an initial £37m way back in 2016. He played on both wings, won two Premier Leagues, an FA Cup, three League Cups, a Premier League Player of the Month and a PFA Young Player of the Year award to his name.
In 2020, Bayern swooped to bring the German back to his homeland, where he’s been even more successful.
If you believe the rumours, however, it looks like Sane may be on his way back to the Premier League, with Arsenal looking to add depth to the wing positions in their squad.
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Gabriel Jesus – €52.2m
There was BIG hype around Gabby Jesus when he signed for City in 2016. He stayed at Palmeiras until the start of 2017, and European fans didn’t know an awful lot about him apart from the fact he was supposed to be f*cking superb at football.
Turns out he was superb at football, but he wasn’t your classic number 9. He could play off the wing and he loved being involved in the build-up.
He was a little enigmatic—it was a challenge to figure out how to bring out the best in the Brazilian, and his highest Prem return of goals was just 14 in 2019-20.
Jesus joined Arsenal in 2022, where he’s shown moments of brilliance but, again, hasn’t been the prolific striker many had in their head when he came to England.
It’s just not his game. He seems a good fit for Arsenal’s style, though, and the best may yet be to come.
Ferran Torres – €55m
Torres never truly made his mark at City. His time in Manchester lasted just a year and a half, punctuated by injuries. The Spaniard was sold to Barcelona during the winter transfer window at the very start of 2022.
He seems to feel more comfortable in Spain—perhaps a touch of the Jesus Navases. In the two years since joining Barca, he’s won La Liga and the Euros, and is apparently dating Luis Enrique’s daughter.
Imagine being a Spanish international and your girlfriend’s dad is still better than you at football.
Raheem Sterling – €56.2m
City have signed 13 players for more than they sold Raheem Sterling to Chelsea for, including Raheem himself from Liverpool. Yet, Raheem the Dream’s sale to Chelsea is the biggest in City’s history at €56.2million.
Sterling has struggled to reproduce the numbers he was putting up at Man City, but then anybody would. Chelsea have very much been in transition recently, and Raheem no longer has Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and co. alongside him.
He may have missed out on the England squad for Euro 2024, but Raheem isn’t finished yet. He doesn’t turn 20 until December, and we reckon he’s due a rejuvenation.