Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and the best 25 best Man City players of the 21st century so far – ranked

In a most unlikely turn of events, Goater moved from Bermuda to England to sign for Manchester United, but ended up becoming a cult hero for City.

The striker joined City in 1998 in their darkest moment, when they were in Division Two, and fired them to successive promotions back to the Premier League. He was the club’s top scorer for four consecutive seasons, scoring more than 30 in the 2001-02 campaign to ensure a speedy return to the top-flight following relegation.

Goater was already adored by City fans for his goal feats, but he cemented his place in club folklore in the last Manchester Derby at Maine Road, scoring twice in a 3-1 win and humiliating Gary Neville in the process.

Sergio Aguero may have scored the goal that delivered City their first Premier League title, but it was only possible because Dzeko had equalised against Queens Park Rangers two minutes earlier. That game summed up the Bosnian’s City career as he was always in Aguero’s shadow, but his contribution to City’s first two titles cannot be underestimated.

Dzeko made the best scoring start of any Premier League player by scoring six times in the opening four games of 2011-12, a record that stood for 13 years until Erling Haaland broke it. He also struck twice in the 6-1 demolition of Manchester United which proved crucial to City pipping the Red Devils to the title on goal difference. Dzeko was City’s second-top scorer when they won the title back in 2014, with just one goal fewer than Aguero.

The club ultimately concluded that they could not accommodate two out-and-out strikers, selling Dzeko to Roma in 2015. He reinvented himself in Italy and is now with Fenerbahce, still plundering goals for fun at the age of 38.

Rodri’s Ballon d’Or triumph was a rare moment of recognition for holding midfielders, who play perhaps the most important role on the pitch while rarely getting noticed. And long before Rodri graced the Etihad Stadium, Barry performed the role to perfection.

Joining City from Aston Villa in 2009, he offered the protection and stability the team needed to begin their eventual dominance of English football, being one of their most consistent performers when they won the FA Cup and their first Premier League title. “He was a baller. Baller. He’s ridiculous. He’s like, in Nandos.. He’s like the perinnaise,” said team-mate Micah Richards.

Barry went on to become the Premier League’s all-time top appearance maker after leaving City and underlined his undying passion for football earlier this year by turning out for village amateur side Hurstpierpoint in the 12th tier of the English football pyramid.

Wright-Phillips was born and bred in London, adopted by Arsenal legend Ian Wright, but he was raised by City. He joined the academy as a teenager and there was always a buzz about him as he went on to win the club’s Young Player of the Year award on four occasions. Wright-Phillips also won the senior award in 2003-04 as his breath-taking wing play lit up City’s first season at the Etihad Stadium, particularly his audacious chip to crown a 4-1 thrashing of United in the derby.

He was soon snapped up by Chelsea, but returned to his boyhood club in 2008, just before the Abu Dhabi takeover, for another memorable spell. He starred for Mark Hughes’ side. but fell out of favour under Roberto Mancini and was left out of the squad for the FA Cup final. He remains a hugely popular figure and is now a club ambassador.

After failing to sign Kaka within a year of the Abu Dhabi takeover, City still needed to make a statement in the transfer market to show the world they meant business. And who better than a passionate, world-class Argentine who just happened to be one of their rivals best players.

City plastered Tevez’s image on an instantly iconic billboard reading “Welcome to Manchester”, and he proved a big hit on the pitch too, scoring 43 goals across his first two seasons, firing the team into the Champions League and helping end their 35-year trophy drought.

They eventually learned of Tevez’s petulance, when he refused to warm-up against Bayern Munich and then returned to Argentina for several months to play golf. He ended his exile in the nick of time, however, to help City claw United back in the title race.

Zabaleta’s incredible commitment over more than 300 appearances for City perhaps takes a little away from the skill that he brought to the backline. His intensive work-rate, willingness to get forward, intelligent reading of the game and defensive strengths made him a mainstay over nine years. Zabaleta will always have a special place in the hearts of fans because of that remarkable determination that he brought to every single appearance.

The Argentine also ingratiated himself to locals, unlike many of his compatriots, by becoming fluent in English and embracing the culture, demonstrated by his love of fish and chips.

City did not just surrender their Premier League crown to Liverpool in the 2019-20 season, they finished 18 points off the pace and needed to fix their defensive problems more than anything else. Sporting director Txiki Begiristain made a bold and expensive move to stop the rot, signing Portuguese centre-back Dias for £61m ($78m).

He soon paid his transfer fee back, restoring defensive solidity to a team that was still ferocious in attack. Guardiola’s side reclaimed the title and Dias’ influence was plain to see, evident in the fact that he was named the Football Writers Association Player of the Year, the first defender to do so in 32 years.

Dias has remained an ever-present at the heart of City’s defence ever since, and the fact they have not relinquished their crown since he joined is no coincidence.

Mahrez scored 78 goals and assisted 56 in all competitions during his five-year spell at City, in which he collected 10 trophies. The Algerian was not always consistent, but few players can match him for entertainment value.

“He is one of the guys in my career who I saw who enjoyed the most,” said Guardiola when Mahrez departed two summers ago. “Incredible skills and technical ability.”

The winger was not always fully appreciated by City fans, largely because of the incredible quality of his team-mates, yet he could always be relied upon to score goals, and compared to the club’s current crop of wingers, his numbers are ridiculous, averaging a goal contribution every 112 minutes in the Premier League.

“Joe Hart is a phenomenon,” said Lionel Messi after Barcelona knocked City out of the Champions League in 2015. “He saved everything.” It is a line worth recalling when analysing Hart’s contribution in his long spell at the club.

The recently-retired goalkeeper was the first player to get the chop by Guardiola – a decision which backfired spectacularly in the Catalan’s first season – but he was integral to City’s two title-winning seasons under first Mancini and then Manuel Pellegrini.

In addition to five domestic trophies (those two league crowns, an FA Cup and two League Cups), Hart also won the Golden Glove, given to the goalkeeper with the most clean sheets in a Premier League season, a record-equalling four times.

Guardiola recently described his relationship with John Stones as that of a father and son, and it is easy to see why he is so fond of the England defender. Guardiola urged City to sign Stones from Everton in his first season for around £50m ($64m), making him the most-expensive defender in Premier League history at the time. And when Stones got off to a rough start atnd was costing City goals by bringing the ball out from the back, the manager stood by him and praised him for his bravery.

Fast-forward eight years and Stones is still at City, having reinvented himself as a marauding midfielder while still being capable of flawless defensive displays and scoring decisive last-gasp headers. ‘The Barnsley Beckenbauer’ enjoys cult hero status among fans and untold respect and love from his team-mates. Especially Bernardo Silva, who named his dog after him!

City were ridiculed for spending almost £200m ($257m) on defenders in Guardiola’s second season at the helm, but Walker has survived them all and proved to be a sensational signing. The England international greatly improved City’s attacking threat in his first few seasons, and when Guardiola re-jigged his team two years ago and predicted that Walker would not be able adapt to his new tactical demands, he emphatically proved his manager wrong. By the end of the season, with Walker playing a pivotal role in the treble triumph, Guardiola was begging the defender to stay.

Walker was one of City’s most consistent performers last season, remaining disciplined with his positioning so the team were hardly ever caught out on the break. He is approaching the end of his time at the Etihad Stadium as Rico Lewis is ready to take the baton from him, yet he will long be remembered for his role in the club’s greatest era.

“I think Ederson is one of Man City’s most important players, if you take him out I find it difficult to see how they can be so dominant,” former City goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel told GOAL. “No one uses their feet better than Ederson does.”

The Brazilian’s footwork is what made him so highly coveted by Guardiola, and it was only after he joined that City truly began to click. Ederson’s confidence on the ball in and outside of his area allows City to dominate possession, but he has also proven a lethal threat with his direct long kicks in behind, providing an impressive four assists for a goalkeeper. He also demonstrated his shot-stopping prowess in the biggest game of all, putting in a decisive display in the 2023 Champions League final win over Inter.

Guardiola inherited Fernandinho when he became City coach in 2016, but just three months in he urged the club to tie the Brazil midfielder to a new contract as he was so impressed with him. “If a team had three Fernandinhos, they would be champions,” he said. “We have one, but he is fast, he is intelligent, he is strong in the air, he can play several positions. When he sees the space, he will run there immediately. When you need to make a correction, you just need one player to challenge, and he is there.”

City did not end up becoming champions in that first season, but Fernandinho was an integral part of the four titles they would go on to win, primarily as a holding midfielder, but also slotting in at centre-back whenever he was needed. And Guardiola was shocked to learn of the Brazilian’s departure in 2022, praising the work he did “behind the scenes” after making 250 appearances.

Sterling’s £49m ($63m) move from Liverpool to City was controversial at the time and at first did not go according to plan, as he scored only 13 times in the league across his first two campaigns. But with the help of Guardiola, Sterling refined his game and turned into a formidable goal-scorer. He was also a regular provider of assists, a master in weaving his way to the byline and delivering a cut-back across the floor for a team-mate to pounce on.

Sterling won every trophy with City aside from the Champions League and was blamed for their quarter-final exit in 2020 after an inexplicable miss against Lyon. He also had a disappointing performance in the final defeat by Chelsea a year later. The forward’s relationship with Guardiola began to sour at a similar time and City wisely sold him to Chelsea in 2022 for £50m. His career has since gone south while City have got even better, but Sterling deserves a huge amount of credit for his role in their first four titles under Guardiola.

After making a mess of the previous year’s transfer windows, City showed they meant business by signing Toure from Barcelona for £24m ($31m) in 2010. The fee might have been high for the time and given City’s previous status, but it proved to be a snip, with the Ivorian going on to boss City’s midfield for eight years and proving to be one of their most tactically astute players.

As well as running games, he won them when they mattered most, scoring the only goals in the 2011 FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United and the final against Stoke, ending City’s 35-year wait for a trophy. The following year, he bagged twice at Newcastle to keep the team on course for their first Premier League title after proving instrumental throughout the season.

Two years later, Toure dragged the Cityzens back to chase down Liverpool and win the title again in 2014, scoring a stunning 20 goals from midfield. He remained at the club for eight years, and although he had passed his peak by the time of Guardiola’s arrival and had a difficult relationship with the coach, he still signed off with another Premier League winners’ medal.

Many people thought that Guardiola was mad when, at the start of the 2019-20 season, he named Foden the most talented player he had worked with. The Catalan, not for the first time, has been proven right.

The midfielder was christened ‘The Stockport Iniesta’ when he broke through at City, but he has proved to be much more deadly than the Barcelona great while equally capable of running games.

Foden has grown more influential each year, and last season was his best yet, scoring 29 goals in all competitions and collecting every domestic individual award. A six-time Premier League winner already at the age of 24, Foden has every chance of growing into City’s greatest player of all time.

It was argued that City did not need to sign Haaland in 2022 as they had already worked out how to win practically everything without a centre-forward. But they were not getting any old front man; they were getting the most ruthless marksman in the world. The Norwegian was expected to need some time to adapt to the Premier League, but instead has scored more than ever before and is on his way to becoming an all-time great.

Haaland made a mockery of previous Premier League greats Alan Shearer and Andy Cole with a record-breaking 36 goals in his first campaign and has barely slowed down since, scoring a barely believable 104 times in 111 games. Haaland has bagged 11 hat-tricks in fewer than three seasons in England, while his freakish athletic prowess has seen him score seemingly impossible goals. His feats have become so routine that is only surprising when he does not get on the scoresheet.

The striker has already broken a staggering number of records and the only thing standing in his way of becoming the Premier League and City’s all-time scorer are injury and the lure of moving to another club.

Holding midfielders do not always get the credit they deserve, but Rodri’s contribution for City over the years has been impossible to ignore and he has just been rightly recognised as the best player in the world by winning the Ballon d’Or.

His goals and assists numbers are more befitting of an attacking midfielder and he has popped up to score in the most crucial moments, above all in the 2023 Champions League final. But Rodri’s true importance is revealed in the fact that whenever he is unavailable, Guardiola’s formidable side suddenly look vulnerable.

Take the fact that they lost just one game with him in the team last season, and when he was suspended for four games, City lost them all. The fact he will miss the rest of the season while he recovers from a serious knee injury means Arsenal and Liverpool will never have a better chance of snatching the title away from City’s grasp.

“One of the best players I’ve seen in my life,” is how Guardiola describes the Portuguese, and he has seen quite a few. Bernardo had thrilled the Etihad Stadium as a Monaco player and soon proved to be a remarkably shrewd signing, even for £43.5m ($56m). He has scored 67 goals and assisted 69 more, but the numbers tell just a small part of the remarkable story he has written at the club.

Bernardo can perform in almost every position and is the picture of understated brilliance, which was cleverly summed up by Guardiola after last season’s Manchester Derby by saying: “He wears no earrings or tattoos, he has a normal car… He is an incredible player for us.”

Gundogan is one of those rare players who is just as likely to run a game without directly contributing to a goal as he is to take a match by the scruff of its neck and take all the scoring responsibility himself. His City career got off to a nightmare start when he suffered a knee injury in his first campaign, but he grew into one Guardiola’s most consistent and trusted performers.

“He can do everything, and everything he does, he does well,” the coach said in May 2023, just after Gundogan’s double in a 3-1 win at Everton which effectively wrapped up the title. “He can play as a holding midfielder defensively without a problem, but close to the box he has an incredible sense of goal.”

Gundogan demonstrated his knack for finding the net by becoming City’s top scorer in the 2020-21 campaign, and on the final day of the following season he rescued the title with two late goals against Aston Villa. He was instrumental to winning the treble, scoring six goals in the decisive month of May, including twice in the FA Cup final win over United. So it was little wonder that, one year after he had left City for Barcelona, he was welcomed back with open arms.

A born leader, Kompany played a huge role in the rise of City both on and off the pitch because of his intelligence and all-round quality. The former captain was a brilliant defender and his determination kept him coming back time and again from a succession of injury setbacks.

Despite those persistent problems, Kompany returned to play a key role in his final season and had one of the greatest farewell moments of all time when his stunning late 25-yard strike against Leicester proved pivotal to City winning a second-successive title in 2019. It came seven years after another history-making goal, his header against Manchester United which gave City the edge in the 2011-12 title race.

Joining as a defensive midfielder in the same summer of the Abu Dhabi takeover, Kompany would go on to become the greatest defender in City’s history, helping the club win 12 trophies. His statue sits outside the stadium and the desire of every fan is to see him one day step into the dugout as City’s manager.

Silva seemed destined to join either Real Madrid or Barcelona after shining for Valencia, but he instead took a leap into the unknown to join City in 2010. It certainly proved to be the right move as he went on to collect 14 winners’ medals during a glorious decade in Manchester.

The Spaniard transported the team to a whole new level of quality when he arrived, and in his first season he helped City qualify for the Champions League for the first time as well as winning their first trophy in 35 years by conquering the FA Cup. He was one of the catalysts of City’s first Premier League title, too, engineering the stunning 6-1 win over United at Old Trafford that same season, and his touch of class was also key to the second conquest in 2014.

But after being the most talented player in the squads of Mancini and Pellegrini, Silva found a kindred spirit in Guardiola and took the team to an even higher plain. ‘El Mago’ starred in the team that collected an astonishing 100 points in 2017-18, all while navigating the trauma of his son being born five months premature. He was key to City retaining the title in 2019 and one year later signed off from the club with 77 goals and 131 assists.

“He was one of the players who allowed for the success of this team,” said Guardiola when Silva retired last year. “It absolutely was a pleasure to be his manager and see day in and day out the quality he had.”

City had a very good team by the time Aguero joined in 2011, and he proved to be the missing piece, an insatiable goal-scorer who could get them over the line in their quest to win the Premier League title. He made an imposing start, scoring twice on his debut against Swansea City, and never slowed down.

His title-snatching goal against Queens’ Park Rangers in ‘Fergie Time’ would have been enough to cement his place in City folklore, but the Argentine was relentless and stayed at the club for a decade, scoring an astonishing 260 goals and winning five league titles. Haaland may well go on to break his record, but Aguero can be safe in the knowledge that he was the club’s first iconic goal-scorer in the Premier League era and fired them to greatness.

If you want to know when Jose Mourinho’s powers as a coach began to fade, you can start with the month of January 2014, when he let Chelsea sell Kevin De Bruyne to Wolfsburg for a mere £18m ($23m). Just 18 months later, De Bruyne was back in the Premier League with a new club after becoming City’s record signing for £55m ($71m), and that fee has turned out to be a bargain.

In 388 games, the Belgian has contributed to 276 goals, 103 scored himself while 173 of them have been gifts for his team-mates. “I always like to assist more than scoring. It gives me another feeling,” he said in 2017. “When you score it’s a great feeling, but to give a great pass means it’s something special for me.”

De Bruyne has finished top of the Premier League’s assist charts in four out of his nine seasons with City. He notched a remarkable 31 assists in the treble-winning campaign of 2022-23 and last season contributed 17, despite being injured for half of it. The playmaker underlined his importance to City in a magical display from the bench against Newcastle early in 2024, his first league appearance in five months, and he ultimately made the difference in the title race, contributing to 14 Premier League goals after recovering from hamstring surgery.

His sublime performance against Crystal Palace led to a glowing tribute from Guardiola. “The numbers, the presence, the consistency has been amazing. One of the best players in all our history of Man City,” is what he said. But let’s be more precise. De Bruyne is not one of the best, he is in a class of his own, and the finest City player of this century, and by extension of all time.