Pep Guardiola has transformed the Manchester City squad since taking over in 2016 – and many of the players who started his first friendly in charge are no longer even at the club.
The Spaniard’s first game as City boss came in a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in a pre-season friendly at the Allianz Arena on July 20, 2016.
City had 12 academy players in their squad that day and we’ve taken a look back at an unfamiliar starting XI to see how they have all fared since.
GK: Willy Caballero (Angus Gunn, 45′)
Caballero became a cult hero with City fans and made 27 appearances for Guardiola before his contract expired in 2017.
The experienced Argentinian goalkeeper then moved to Chelsea and continued to play a back-up role across four years at Stamford Bridge.
He was released at the end of the 2020-21 campaign, and after six months spent training with AFC Wimbledon was snapped up by Southampton in December as emergency cover.
They extended his initial one-month deal to the end of the season and then until 2023, so he’ll be at a Premier League club well past his 41st birthday.
Gunn failed to make the grade at City and joined Southampton in 2018 but was unable to establish himself as first choice ahead of Alex McCarthy. He spent the 2020-21 campaign on loan at Stoke before rejoining his boyhood club Norwich City, also his father Bryan Gunn’s former club.
Angus Gunn and father Bryan are the first father and son goalkeepers to both concede seven or more goals in a Premier League match 👀
Leicester 0-9 Southampton (Angus – 2019)
Blackburn 7-1 Norwich (Bryan – 1992)
🙈🙈🙈 pic.twitter.com/bMNtGJPt6o
— GOAL (@goal) October 26, 2019
RB: Pablo Maffeo
Maffeo impressed on loan at Girona FC in La Liga and earned high praise for his performance against Barcelona.
“Man-marking doesn’t bother me – you know that there will be tough matches and it can be strange to always have someone around you,” Lionel Messi told DAZN.
‘I don’t remember [who the toughest man marker has been], truly. The one from Girona [Maffeo], maybe. That was exaggerated.”
The full-back made a permanent move to Stuttgart in 2018 but struggled to make an impact with the German club and was loaned back to Girona in 2019.
He went on loan again in 2021-22, helping Mallorca avoid relegation from La Liga before joining the Balearic club permanently in summer 2022.
CB: Tosin Adarabioyo
The defender was at City since he was five years old and for a long time was…
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