In recent years, Manchester City has made it one of their primary objectives to explore the globe for young talent and bring them into the system.
No other club is better equipped to produce as many players as City thanks to their cutting-edge academy and extensive scouting network. Since the bulk of the talented footballers who have been signed have never even seen Pep Guardiola, it is difficult to remember all of them, and it is simple to overlook some of them.
Here are five City players who may still be under contract with the team.
When Zack Steffen returned from a season-long loan at Fortuna Dusseldorf in 2020, he replaced Claudio Bravo as Ederson's backup goalkeeper. Even though he was only able to make two Premier League and two Champions League appearances, he consistently appeared in cup games and put forth a good effort despite not having his Brazilian teammate's ball-handling skills.
That would end up costing him last season when, in the FA Cup semifinal against Liverpool, he allowed himself to be tackled by Sadio Mane, which resulted in the Blues' elimination from the competition. In order to get regular playing time before the World Cup, Steffen joined Middlesbrough on loan in the summer. However, he was not chosen for the United States team that traveled to Qatar.
Due to the teenager's outstanding exploits in the Brazil Under-17s' World Cup victory a few months earlier, City confirmed the purchase of highly-rated full-back Couto back in 2020. As he was listed on the substitutes' bench for the Community Shield loss to Leicester in 2017, Couto has moved closer to the first team than other young players who are assimilated into the City Football Group.
But as he acquires first-team experience at the age of 20, he is currently in his third season on loan. He started out at Girona, played at Braga last season, and is currently back at Girona, where he recently played his parent club in a friendly.
It appeared that Taylor Harwood-Bellis would follow fellow Stockport local Phil Foden into City history books after joining the club at the age of six and excelling at every age level up until he made his first-team debut. However, since the center-eight back's first-team outings, the last of which was almost two years ago, things haven't gone as planned.
The 20-year-old has been out on loan for the past few years, spending time with Blackburn, Anderlecht, Stoke, and now Burnley, where he has reconnected with Vincent Kompany. It would be easy to assume that Harwood-Bellis has joined the Clarets permanently after players like Arijanet Muric and CJ Egan-Riley made the switch, but he is still only on loan.
Yangel Herrera, who is currently 24 years old,
The Venezuelan is currently a seasoned international with plenty of experience thanks to many loan stints in Spain, where he is currently playing for Girona. The midfielder's contract has 18 more months left on it.
Morgan Rogers, a forward, joined from West Brom in 2019 with a fair amount of anticipation, and expectations were high that he would shine at City. A loan stint at Lincoln was moderately successful, but last season at Bournemouth, he played fast and loose with the truth. After traveling to Abu Dhabi with the team, the 20-year-old started the most recent friendly against Girona, although he didn't perform well. He'll probably take out another loan in the future.
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