Man City's best XI of current players who featured in their youth ranks, ft. Foden & Sancho | OneFootball

Manchester City might be a frightening prospect for any team to face at the present moment, but that does not only apply to the players that remained at the club past the youth set up.

With such riches at their disposal, it is understandable that even some of the best youngsters around would struggle to ever break into the first-team squad.

There are a few exceptions to that rule however, as Phil Foden has been a key part of the club's success since he was brought into the fold a number of years ago.

The now 23-year-old has won every trophy available to him now with multiple Premier League title wins and a Champions League success to boast also.

He has already made over 100 senior appearances for the club many would regard as the best in the world at the moment, having just completed a historic treble in 2022/23.

There is another youth player that had a solid campaign last time out for City that has made his way through the ranks at the club, but we will keep that quiet for the time being.

Best XI of players who featured in Manchester City's youth ranks

Man City have an abundance of quality players to have passed through their youth ranks, and we decided to use the records kept by TransferMarkt to create the best XI possible from that long list of talent.

There are some big names to miss out on a starting berth in this side, meaning the Citizens would even have a brilliant substitute bench in this hypothetical scenario.

So, which players make the cut for the best XI of players to have featured in Man City's youth ranks?

GK: Gavin Bazunu

The Irish goalkeeper spent three years at City, playing only for the youth sides and never making a senior appearance before being shipped off to Southampton for a £12 million fee.

He spent the 2022/23 season as the first choice goalkeeper at St Mary's, and did catch the eye of many as a solid player for the future despite the Saints' relegation to the Championship.

Hopes of getting promoted straight back to the top division will have been boosted for the club by retaining the services of the 21-year-old for the new season.

RB: Kieran Trippier

Trippier is currently regarded as one of the top right-backs in the Premier League as he is a key component of the rising Newcastle side to have qualified for the Champions League last season.

His 2022/23 campaign was a very productive in an attacking sense as he set up seven league goals for teammates while he also scored a fantastic free-kick against City, his former youth club.

Having been capped 42 times by England, the right-back has also got a La Liga title in his list of honours after a fruitful spell under Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid.

CB: Taylor Harwood-Bellis

Having just won the Championship while on loan at Burnley, and the Under 21s European Championships with England, the 21-year-old has got a taste for silverware.

He is still employed by City, and this ability to collect trophies could come in handy if he is to make it at the club in the future.

There is a lot of competition in the centre-back roles in Pep Guardiola's side, with Rúben Dias, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Aymeric Laporte, Josko Gvardiol all competing for a starting berth.

Another player that failed to make a competitive first-team debut for the Citizens, the big defender is now an established Premier League player.

Adarabioyo had loan spells at both West Brom and Blackburn Rovers in his younger years, but Craven Cottage is the place he managed to make his name known to fans.

LB: Rico Lewis

Lewis has followed in Foden's footsteps in making it into Guardiola's plans after graduating from the youth setup to make several appearances for the club.

His first season as a member of the main squad has seen Lewis become a Premier League and Champions League winner already in his young career.

Being a bigger part of these successes will be the aim for the versatile 18-year-old defender. He has played as both a right-back and left-back, showing a great ability to play the inverted role.

CM: Romeo Lavia

The Belgian midfielder is currently the subject of a bidding war between Liverpool and Chelsea, only one year on from a move from City to Southampton.

Any move will even generate more money for the club as a sell-on clause was inserted into the deal that saw the midfielder leave for St Mary's.

He had an impressive debut campaign in the Premier League in the engine room for the Saints, despite the team giving a poor account of themselves overall and dropping to the Championship.

It is clear to see why such big clubs are being linked with the 19-year-old as he is too good to be playing a season in the Championship.

CM: Seko Fofana

Fofana never played a game for his youth club, but did make 21 appearances while on loan at Fulham in the Championship.

This was the extent of his contribution within the English game as he then went on to have stints in France and Italy, with the most notable being at RC Lens.

The 2022/23 season was the best he spent with the club - in what turned out to be his final season in France - as Lens fell only one point short of winning the Ligue 1 title.

Fofana has recently joined many players to make the move from Europe to Saudi Arabia as he joined Al Nassr where he will reportedly earn a salary of £250,000-per-week.

It was a very short time that Rabiot - now a World Cup winner - spent in Manchester as part of the youth setup in 2008.

The current Juventus midfielder has been linked with a move to Manchester United in recent years in what would be a big return to England with the biggest rivals of his former side.

He spent the majority of his career with PSG, as he was there for seven years without ever being a nailed-on starter for the French outfit.

His career has been a very successful one however as Rabiot has won 21 trophies during his silverware heavy career thus far.

Attitude issues have been cited as the reason he has not made the move back to England with United holding concerns over the application he would be willing to put in.

RW: Jadon Sancho

Unlike Rabiot, Sancho has now pulled on the colours of City's most fierce rivals for the past two seasons. His move to Borussia Dortmund turned out to be a brilliant choice as it put him on the footballing map.

The £73 million transfer fee paid for him made Sancho one of the most expensive English players of all-time.

His return to England has not been the huge success it was touted to be, with some City fans even disappointed that the club allowed him to move to the red side of Manchester without making a move of their own.

This decision has turned out to be a wise one with Sancho struggling to cope with the physical side of the league rather than the technical side.

Being unable to take on a man one-on-one in the way he did over and over in the Bundesliga has hampered Sancho's attacking output.

CF: Brahim Diaz

Diaz made five first-team appearances before heading for the Etihad exit door to move to Real Madrid back in 2019 for a fee of £15.5 million.

He was part of the squad that went on to win the 2019/20 La Liga title, but did not make too much of an impact in the limited minutes he was handed.

As a result of his lack of game time, Diaz moved to AC Milan on an initial one-year loan deal ahead of the 2020/21 season.

After impressing during this spell, a deal was struck for the Spaniard to remain with the Italian giants on loan. This spell ended up continuing for three full seasons and came to an end in the summer of 2023.

The 24-year-old has now returned to Real Madrid, with the hopes of breaking into the starting team at the Bernabeu which will be a tough task due to the competition for places in the team.

LW: Phil Foden

As previously mentioned, Foden has won everything possible in his City career, with the next aim surely to become a regular starter in the side.

Guardiola loves to rotate his starting team a lot throughout a season, but certain players perform to a level that make it very difficult to drop them, for example Kevin De Bruyne and Rúben Dias.

Foden will be looking to fight his way into this bracket to also give himself more chances of breaking into his national side on a more consistent basis.

He did manage to score 11 goals in the 2022/23 Premier League season despite being in and out of the team a lot. Just imagine how impactful he could be with regular minutes.