Manchester City is one of the clubs in Europe that has bought the most Argentine players throughout its history. From 2002 to today, 9 players have worn the citizens' shirt and there is a tenth who can make his debut in the coming months if Pep Guardiola so decides.
The man from Mar del Plata was the first to wear the Citizens' pilcha. A different team than what we see today, in 2002 the Manchester club paid $5,000,000 for the forward. He only played one game with the “City” shirt due to his fight with the team's technical director Kevin Keegan.
The right back is the second Argentine with the most appearances in the institution: 333 games, 12 goals between 2008 and 2017. He won six titles (two Premier titles as most notable). On August 29, 2008 he left Espanyol and joined Manchester City through a transfer of 8,000,000 euros and with a 4-year contract.
Pep Guardiola praised him as a legend for the club. As a tribute, Zabaleta received lifetime tickets to see Manchester City and a shirt with the inscription “Zabaleta 333” for the number of games played.
Tevez's arrival at City was a bombshell in Manchester due to his immediate past in United. The “Red Devils” received about 35 million euros for the operation. He spent four seasons, scoring 73 goals in 148 games.. The Apache took three Olympic laps, with a Premier as the most important title.
The Argentine experienced an ordeal when he was inactive for several months for refusing to enter a Champions League match where the coach, Roberto Mancini sanctioned him and marginalized him from the squad.
Absolute idol of the club, he arrived in 2011 in exchange for 36,000,000 euros and played for more than 10 years. He scored a key goal against Queens Park Rangers in 2012 to give them the Premier title after a 44-year drought. He is the club's top scorer with 260 goals, won 15 titles and has a statue at the stadium gate.
The current coach of River was there for three years, from 2013 to 2016. Requested by the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini. They paid 5,000,000 million euros for his transfer where he played 106 games and scored four goals, with three titles.
At the beginning of 2014 he was signed by “City” led by coach Manuel Pellegrini. In July 2014 he scored his first goal as a starter in a preseason friendly tournament against Sporting Kansas City. His debut took place on August 10 against Arsenal in the Community Shield, that was the only game he played for Manchester.
The Ciudadanos paid around eight million euros (to Málaga of Spain) for Caballero, also requested by Pellegrini, in 2014. 48 games in total for the current Southampton man and a title. He left in 2017, free, to Chelsea.
“City” paid 45 million euros at the time for the world champion defender with Argentina. He played for five years. with 210 games and eleven goals. He won nine titles and in 2020 he was transferred to Benfica in Portugal.
City paid River Plate 21,000,000 million euros for the Cordovan's record. The world champion reached goal number 30 with the citizens' shirt and in a short time managed to make history by winning the first Champions League.
The “Diablito” became River Plate's second most important sale with only 6 games played with the “millionaire” shirt. His recent performance with the Argentine national team shirt in the under 17 team where in 15 games he scored 10 goals sparked the interest of Manchester City.
The City Group bought it for 27,000,000 million euros. Apparently Pep Guardiola would not take it into consideration but the player would only arrive at the “citizens” in December 2024. Therefore, anything could happen for the Catalan technical director to change his mind.
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