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Manchester City's Mario Balotelli (second left) celebrates scoring during the Barclays Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Sunday October 23, 2011.

Where are they now? The Man City side that demolished United 6-1

Planet Football •

Manchester City’s 6-1 victory over Manchester United on October 23rd, 2011 was truly iconic for the club.

Mario Balotelli opened the scoring before revealing an undershirt that read “Why always me?” before Jonny Evans was sent off for fouling the Italian who then went and got the second goal of the game.

Sergio Aguero’s finish was then followed up by Darren Fletcher’s strike from outside the box, but the Scotsman’s impressive effort turned out to be a mere consolation as City ran rampant in the closing stages.

Edin Dzeko scored either side of David Silva slotting the ball between David de Gea’s legs, completing what was a humiliation of the Red Devils.

This was a statement performance from the men representing the blue side of Manchester, so we looked to see where they are now.

GK: Joe Hart

At the time, Hart was considered as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, but it’s safe to say it’s been a turbulent time since the former England international was discarded by Pep Guardiola.

After two loan spells, he went off to Burnley but failed to become first-choice. The 35-year-old subsequently spent a spell as back-up to Hugo Lloris at Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham but has since enjoyed a late-career resurgence as a Scottish title winner with Celtic.

Guardiola was probably right about him not being able to play out from the back, mind.

RB: Micah Richards

Richards may have burst onto the scene, but he wasn’t able to maintain the level of performance needed to keep him at the top.

The defender was loaned out to Fiorentina in 2015 and went to Aston Villa for free once that spell came to an end – but spent most of his time at Villa Park sidelined and eventually called time on his career at 31 in 2019. He’s now a pundit, featuring prominently on Sky Sports and BBC.

CB: Vincent Kompany

One of City’s most loved players in recent years eventually left in 2019 to become player-coach of Anderlecht.

He didn’t stay in that role long, lasting just five games before focusing solely on playing for the rest of the campaign, before taking up management full-time. He left the Belgian giants at the end of last season and is now masterminding Burnley’s bid to return to the Premier League.

CB: Joleon Lescott

Lescott went to West Bromwich Albion, then had a spell at Aston Villa that was best remembered for the defender “accidentally” posting a picture of his car shortly after a loss.

Spells at AEK Athens and Sunderland followed before what we thought was his retirement. But in 2020, Spanish lower league side Real Murcia announced he’d signed him at the age of 38. The move unfortunately never came to fruition, unfortunately, and he’s now working in punditry and as a coach with England’s Under-21s.

LB: Gael Clichy

Clichy went to Istanbul Basaksehir in 2017, alongside fellow former Premier League men Gokhan Inler, Manuel da Costa and Kerim Frei.

The likes of Demba Ba and Martin Skrtel subsequently arrived to join him and he played a key role in the club’s first Super Lig title in 2019-20 before being released. He’s still at the age of 37 for Servette in Switzerland, but already has one eye on a future coaching career.

RM: James Milner (Aleksandar Kolarov, ’89)

Milner may be 36 years old, but he’s still a useful utility man, over two full decades after he made his Premier League debut for boyhood club Leeds United. Since leaving City for Liverpool in 2015, Milner’s made over 300 appearances and lifted every trophy going.

Kolarov retired after leaving Inter last summer. The thought of standing in the way of one of his free-kicks still gives us nightmares.

READ: A brilliant Xl of players who were born after James Milner’s debut

 

CM: Yaya Toure

Toure’s last competitive appearances came for Quingdao Huanghai in the Chinese Super League, but we loved seeing that the Ivory Coast icon was training with Leyton Orient.

He’s done some punditry and ambassadorial work since then. In the summer, he joined Tottenham as an Under-16s coach.

He was reportedly approached for the Wigan job a few weeks back. After he turned them, they appointed his brother Kolo instead.

CM: Gareth Barry

The Premier League’s record appearance-maker retired in August of 2020, having made six appearances in 2019-20 to help West Brom get back into the top tier.

Like many of his old England team-mates, the 41-year-old has done some punditry since hanging up his boots. He reportedly has no desire to go into coaching.

READ: A tribute to Gareth Barry, one of the PL’s most underrated players

LM: David Silva

The magician left City in the summer of 2020, moving back to Spain to play for Real Sociedad. If you thought that was a sign of his career winding down then think again.

The 37-year-old is now into his third season at Real Sociedad and has made over 70 appearances for the La Liga club. He won the Copa del Rey with La Real in 2021.

ST: Sergio Aguero (Samir Nasri, ’85)

The Argentine was a hero back then and he’s a hero now. The striker later became City’s all-time top goalscorer and was the last of City’s legendary 2011-12 Premier League champions to depart the club.

After a tearful goodbye at the Etihad – after a fifth league title triumph, of course – he departed for Barcelona in the summer of 2021. But he made just four appearances for the Catalan club before a heart defect forced him into a sudden retirement.

The Argentinian scored the last of his 426 career goals in El Clasico. A fitting stage for an all-time great.

More recently, we absolutely loved seeing his smiling face right in the thick of Argentina’s World Cup celebrations. Full John Terry and we don’t begrudge him it one bit.

Nasri retired in 2020 after a short stint with Anderlecht. He’s kept a fairly low profile since then.

READ: Iconic debuts: Sergio Agüero’s blistering introduction to Man City

ST: Mario Balotelli (Edin Dzeko, ’70)

After leaving City in 2013, Balotelli has spent time with AC Milan, Liverpool, Nice, Marseille, Brescia, AC Monza, Adana Demirspor and – currently – Swiss side FC Sion.

Dzeko, who came on and scored two late goals that unforgettable afternoon, continues to be one of the most underrated goalscorers in Europe. He moved to Inter from Roma last summer and is still banging them in at the age of 36.

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