Sancho, Palmer and Lavia - how much do Man City make from selling youth academy players?

Manchester City have been nothing short of all-conquering since Pep Guardiola joined the club in 2016 and, with the money afforded to him and his backroom team by the club’s Abu Dhabi Royal family owners, have subsequently built one of the most expensively-assembled football squads in the history of the sport. No less than €1.51 billion has been spent on new Man City players since Guardiola arrived in the Premier League - putting the Etihad club second only to Chelsea in the highest spending clubs over the course of the last eight seasons. 

However, while Man City clearly benefit from their rich owners, the English top-flight club have also developed an impressive ability to develop young players in their own youth academies. And while some have gone on to become valuable members of Guardiola’s squad, even more have departed the club in favour of first team opportunities elsewhere. And along the way Man City have made truly remarkable fortunes from selling these players. 

How much have Man City made from selling academy players?

According to Transfermarkt’s own information, Man City have made €378.8 million from transfer fees received for players that played for at least one of the club’s youth teams since 2014. In total, that works out at 51 transfers over the course of the last 10 seasons, averaging out at around €7.2m per departure. Remarkably, when we consider that Man City have a total income from transfer fees in that period of time that stands at €791.8m, it suggests that no less than 47.3% of the club’s total income from the transfer window has come about from selling players from the Man City youth academy. And as we can see in the graph above, the Premier League side have made close to €192m from sales in the last three seasons alone. 

In fact, when we consider how much Man City have made from selling youth academy players, it not only explains why the club have made €791.8m from transfer fees over the course of the last 10 seasons - again, second only to Chelsea among all English clubs - but points to a revenue stream that far surpasses their domestic rivals. As we can see in the graph above, if we were to remove Man City’s income from their youth academy and treat it as a separate club, it would rank thirteenth among all clubs in England for transfer income since 2014. A figure which stands just short of what Arsenal have made from all transfer sales in that period of time and less than €100m short of Brighton's famed ability to sell star players in the window. Which, again, just goes to show how huge and profitable an operation Man City are running in their youth academy. 

Who are Man City’s biggest youth academy sales? 

To no great surprise, Cole Palmer’s €47m move to Chelsea last summer sits at the top of the biggest sales made by the Man City youth academy. But, as we can see from the top 10 list above, there are a number of players that have flown under the radar in recent years that have departed the club for sizable sums. For example, a number of players who are now considered established Premier League and Championship stars, like Kelechi Iheanacho (joined Leicester for €27.7m), Roméo Lavia (Southampton for €22.3m) and James Trafford (Burnley for €17.3m), once called the Man City youth academy home before departing for game time elsewhere. And in each instance the club were able to make a sizable profit from the young players that they scouted, trained and then developed into top players.