Manchester City's Legends Under Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City decade is ending with 19 trophies on the board and a skyline of statues outside the Etihad. Titles, records, a Champions League at last – all of it built on a core of players he reshaped, reimagined and, in some cases, rebuilt entirely.

These are the footballers who defined his era.

Raheem Sterling – From raw pace to ruthless output

When Raheem Sterling arrived from Liverpool in 2015 for £49m, the fee screamed potential more than proof. He had speed, skill and promise. What he didn’t yet have was end product.

Guardiola changed that.

Under the Catalan, Sterling became a machine. He made 292 appearances for Guardiola, scoring 120 goals and providing 77 assists, and hit 20-plus goals in three straight seasons. He left City with 131 goals overall in seven years at the Etihad, a winger turned wide forward, then almost a penalty-box poacher.

• Four Premier League titles
• One FA Cup
• Five EFL Cups
• PFA Young Player of the Year in 2018-19
• FWA Footballer of the Year the same season
• An MBE in 2021

Sterling arrived as a talent. Guardiola turned him into a guarantee.

Ilkay Gundogan – The understated heartbeat

Ilkay Gundogan was Guardiola’s first signing at City in 2016, a £20m midfielder from Borussia Dortmund who did not arrive with fanfare or fireworks. He left as the captain who lifted the Treble.

Across 358 appearances, Gundogan scored 65 goals and supplied 48 assists under Guardiola, numbers that barely scratch at his influence. He brought balance, control, calm. When City needed someone to knit everything together, he did it with two touches and a half-turn.

His defining act came in 2023. Wearing the armband, he drove City to the Treble, scoring a stunning volley in the FA Cup final against Manchester United and then guiding them through to that long-awaited Champions League triumph.

• Five Premier League titles
• Two FA Cups
• Four EFL Cups
• Champions League
• Uefa Super Cup
• Club World Cup

One PFA Team of the Year nod is a modest line on a stacked CV, but it suits him. Gundogan was the ultimate unsung hero of the Guardiola years.

Kyle Walker – The sprinting enforcer

The eyebrows went up when City paid £45m for Kyle Walker in 2017. A full-back, at that price, in that era, looked excessive.

It didn’t for long.

Walker became a pillar of Guardiola’s City, a right-back who could play as an overlapping sprinter, a tucked-in auxiliary centre-half or a pure one-v-one defender against the quickest forwards in Europe. His recovery pace allowed City to squeeze higher, to take more risks, to play on a knife-edge.

Under Guardiola, Walker made 319 appearances, scored six goals and laid on 23 assists. He collected six Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, four EFL Cups, a Uefa Super Cup and a Club World Cup. Four times he made the PFA Team of the Year.

He captained City to their record-breaking fourth consecutive league crown in 2024. A leader in the dressing room, a constant in every title charge, and now immortalised with a statue at the Etihad. The fee looks cheap in hindsight.

David Silva – The magician who bridged eras

Before Guardiola, before the avalanche of silverware, there was David Silva. Fresh from winning the 2010 World Cup with Spain, he left Valencia for Manchester and became the club’s first true modern superstar signing.

Silva played under Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini, but Guardiola’s arrival in 2016 gave him a final act worthy of his talent. In his last four seasons at City, he became the creative spark of a side that dominated English football. Guardiola called him “one of the greats”. The numbers back it up.

Silva registered 93 Premier League assists during his time in England – more than anyone else across that period, and seventh on the all-time list. Under Guardiola he added six Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, four EFL Cups, a Uefa Super Cup and a Club World Cup.

He is, in the eyes of many City fans, the greatest to ever wear the shirt. ‘El Mago’ has the statue to prove it.

Ederson – The goalkeeper who changed the game

Guardiola’s early ruthlessness at City was laid bare when he replaced England No.1 Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo. The first attempt at a ball-playing goalkeeper faltered. The second, in 2017, changed the sport.

Ederson arrived from Benfica and rewired how City – and soon, almost everyone else – built from the back. His distribution drew opponents on, luring them into pressing high, opening space for City’s forwards to attack. Long, flat passes. Measured chips. Risky angles. He turned goal kicks into counter-attacks.

Under Guardiola he made 372 appearances, claimed three Premier League Golden Gloves, and became Fifa’s Best Men’s Goalkeeper in 2023. His honours under Guardiola: six Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, four EFL Cups, a Uefa Super Cup and a Club World Cup.

Ederson even contributed going forward, with a record seven Premier League assists. His style became the blueprint. The modern sweeper-keeper, fully realised.

Rodri – The metronome and, ultimately, a Ballon d’Or winner

Rodri’s first months at City in 2019 were not easy. Signed as Fernandinho’s heir, he initially looked a half-second off the pace in the Premier League.

Guardiola persisted. Rodri learned. City evolved around him.

He became the side’s metronome – the player who set the tempo, closed the spaces, and made the right decision almost every time. His crowning moment came in 2023 when he scored the winner in the Champions League final, sealing the Treble and writing himself into club folklore.

Under Guardiola, Rodri made 298 appearances, scoring 28 goals and adding 32 assists. He collected four Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, three EFL Cups, a Uefa Super Cup and a Club World Cup.

In 2024 he won the Ballon d’Or, the first Manchester City player ever to do so and the first Premier League-based winner since 2008. The holding midfielder became the headline act.

Erling Haaland – The goalscoring avalanche

Erling Haaland arrived from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 for £55m and promptly tore up every scoring script available.

In his first season, he scored 36 Premier League goals and 52 in all competitions, powering City to the Treble and their first Champions League title. That haul brought him the European Golden Shoe, Uefa Men’s Player of the Year, PFA Player of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season.

The onslaught didn’t stop. He followed with 38 goals in his second campaign, 27 of them in the league, as City secured a fourth straight Premier League crown. Then came another 34 goals in 2024-25, the numbers stacking up at a rate English football had rarely seen.

Across 198 appearances under Guardiola, Haaland scored 162 goals and provided 35 assists. Two Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, an EFL Cup, a Uefa Super Cup and a Club World Cup already in the bag. Individual honours piled up: Uefa Men’s Player of the Year 2022-23, Ballon d’Or runner-up in 2023, the Gerd Muller Trophy, the European Golden Shoe, plus FWA, PFA and Premier League Player of the Season awards in 2022-23.

He was the purest expression of Guardiola’s creation: a relentless chance machine finally paired with a ruthless finisher.

Phil Foden – The local boy who stayed home

Phil Foden grew up a City fan. In 2019, at 17, Guardiola handed him his debut and then refused to let him leave on loan, despite the clamour from pundits and fans who wanted him to play every week elsewhere.

The manager’s stance was simple: Foden would learn more training daily with the best.

He was right. Foden has made 368 appearances under Guardiola, scoring 110 goals and providing 68 assists. The 2023-24 season marked his true arrival as a leading man. With Ballon d’Or winner Rodri sidelined, Foden stepped into the void, delivering 19 goals and eight assists from midfield as City clinched that record-breaking fourth consecutive league title.

• PFA Young Player of the Year for a second time
• PFA Player of the Year
• FWA Footballer of the Year
• Premier League Player of the Season

The boyhood blue had become the face of the team.

Since then, his form has dipped at times, but Guardiola has kept faith. A new four-year contract signed in May confirmed his status as a central figure in whatever comes next.

John Stones – The defender who became a playmaker

Guardiola spent much of his City tenure tweaking the back line – four centre-backs, inverted full-backs, wing-backs pushing high, endless variations in search of the perfect structure.

John Stones was the constant through that experimentation.

Signed for his composure and passing from the back, he grew into a defender who could step into midfield, dictate play and still handle the dirty work at the heart of the defence. Under Guardiola, Stones made 294 appearances, scoring 19 goals and registering nine assists. He collected six Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, three EFL Cups, a Uefa Super Cup and a Club World Cup, and twice made the PFA Team of the Year.

His most striking reinvention came in the 2023 Champions League final, when he operated as a surprise holding midfielder and dominated the game. Guardiola later called him the “best player by far” that night. It was the perfect snapshot of the manager’s vision: a centre-half turned conductor on the biggest stage.

Guardiola’s legacy at Manchester City will be measured in trophies and titles, but also in players who left as more than they were when they arrived. Some arrived as prospects, some as stars, some as doubts. They depart as legends, their careers and the club’s history permanently intertwined.

The question now is not what Guardiola built, but who dares to follow it.