Manchester City ranked fifth-most valuable football club worldwide | OneFootball

Manchester City have been ranked amongst the most valuable clubs in the world as the club continue to spread their global influence 17 years on from the Abu Dhabi takeover.

Pep Guardiola’s side have just undergone their most difficult campaign in the near decade of working with the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager, who took over from Manuel Pellegrini at the helm at the Etihad Stadium ahead of the 2016/17 season.

City have since risen as a global brand beyond anything the club’s ownership would have imagined when they came through the door, having won six Premier League titles, a maiden UEFA Champions League title and a plethora of domestic silverware under Guardiola.

The Blues marked a spot in the FA Cup semi-final for the seventh straight season last term and albeit they went on to lose to Crystal Palace in the final at Wembley, Guardiola’s influence and coaching have stamped an impressionable mark at the Etihad Stadium.

A busy summer lies ahead for the 2023 treble winners who will look to bolster their squad in the transfer market after a disappointing season, with Tijjani Reijnders expected to sign in the coming week after Manchester City reached a full agreement with AC Milan for the 26-year-old Italy international.

Wolves’ Rayan Ait-Nouri and Lyon’s Rayan Cherki are expected to follow Reijnders through the door into the blue side of Manchester, with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak recently outlining Manchester City’s ambitions of securing all new summer signings in time for the FIFA Club World Cup.

Manchester City also remain keen on Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White following the departure of Kevin De Bruyne but the England international is currently deemed too expensive for officials at the Etihad Stadium, who are keen on trimming the wage bill this summer.

Pep Guardiola has maintained that whilst there will a shuffle in his squad between now and the onset of the 2025-26 campaign in August, he does not want too many personnel changes having been a key reason Manchester City were not as aggressive in the transfer market last summer.

After a few years of lucrative sales that saw each of Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte, Julian Alvarez and Cole Palmer leave the Etihad Stadium, there is money to spend for Manchester City this summer – following their £181.5 million January outlay on the quartet of Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Nico Gonzalez.

Forbes have ranked the most valuable clubs in the world and Manchester City have been positioned in fifth place – valued at $5.3 billion. The top four places are occupied by Real Madrid ($6.75 billion), Manchester United ($6.6 billion), Barcelona ($5.65 billion) and Liverpool ($5.4 billion) respectively.

Liverpool were recently crowned Premier League champions and were rewarded with significant prize money courtesy of finishing top of last season’s UEFA Champions League group-stage in Arne Slot’s debut season at Anfield.

Guardiola will be keen to get Manchester City back firing and competing on all fronts next season as the Blues look to plug the loopholes in their injury-riddled, tired squad after years of unparalleled success under the Catalan.