More than £260m in just six years! How Manchester City have already covered the cost of their academy by selling graduates

The winger looked certain for his big break in Guardiola's side after impressing during pre-season ahead of the 2021-22 campaign, scoring in all of the club's friendly matches. The then-18-year-old got an opportunity to show what he could do in a proper match by starting against Leicester City in the Community Shield but after a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Wembley he got no more minutes for the first team.

Edozie joined Southampton for a fee rising to £10m ($12.5m) last year and has had far more opportunities at Saints, playing just under half of Premier League matches last season. He finally scored his first goal for the club in the 2-1 win over Queens' Park Rangers last month.

The midfielder was another player who had barely played for Pep Guardiola's side but was still highly coveted over the summer. Charles finally made his City debut off the bench against Brentford on the final day of last season and it was enough to attract the attention of Southampton.

The Northern Ireland international was sold for an initial fee of £10.5m ($13m) plus a further £4m ($5m) in add-ons, becoming the latest in a long line of players to make the move from the Etihad Stadium to St Mary's.

Bazunu joined City's academy as a 16-year-old from League of Ireland giants Shamrock Rovers. He continued his footballing education in Manchester but never got to play for the first team, instead getting professional experience with League One sides Rochdale and Portsmouth.

Ireland's No. 1 joined Southampton last year for an initial fee of £12m ($15m) and had a rocky first season in the Premier League, making a number of individual mistakes as Saints were relegated. He remains their first-choice 'keeper in the Championship.

Borges was the leading light of City's under-21 side last year, finishing top scorer in the Premier League 2 with 21 goals and also being named player of the season as his side won a third consecutive title (just like the senior team).

The Portugal youth international, 19, never had the chance to play for Guardiola and has looked to the future away with City. After West Ham showed interest in signing him over the summer he eventually opted to join Ajax, which, with their tradition of developing young players, looks like being an ideal destination for him to continue his stunning rise.

The Manchester United winger spent just two years at City but it was at the CFA where he took the big step from promising youngster into generational talent after joining from Watford. Sancho ripped rivals including United to shreds for the under-18 team alongside Foden but grew frustrated when he was not taken on the first-team's tour of the USA in 2017, while Foden was given the nod.

Sancho stopped attending training sessions and negotiated an £8m ($10m) move to Borussia Dortmund without ever playing for Pep Guardiola's first team. In Germany, he exploded into one of the most exciting youngsters in the world, scoring 17 goals and providing 17 assists in a single campaign. When Sancho moved to City's arch rivals Manchester United in 2021, the club pocketed an additional £10m ($12.5m) due to a sell-on clause. And Sancho's time at United has not exactly gone well.

Trafford was England's goalkeeper during their glorious under-21 campaign alongside Palmer and became a hero when he saved Abel Ruiz's penalty in the last minute of the final as well as a follow-up effort. But before the final he had already made headlines due to being the subject of a £19m ($24m) move to Burnley from City.

Trafford, 20, joined City's academy in 2015 but had only ever been part of the matchday squad on six occasions, never getting on the pitch. He had spent the previous two campaigns on loan in League One, first with Accrington Stanley and then Bolton Wanderers.

The fee for a goalkeeper who had only had experience in English football's third tier raised plenty of eyebrows but also spoke of how highly regarded City youngsters are, regardless of how often they had played for the first team. Trafford started Burnley's first game back in the Premier League, against City.

The Spaniard played a grand total of 50 Premier League minutes for City but that was enough to convince Real Madrid to snap him up for an initial £15m ($19m). It was a huge leap of faith in a 19-year-old and the move came too early for Diaz, who struggled to get many minutes with Los Blancos in the following 18 months.

He fared much better when he moved to AC Milan on loan and played a big part in the Rossoneri's first Serie A title for 11 years in 2022. He returned to Real three years later this summer, taking up his old place on the Santiago Bernabeu's substitutes' bench, playing just 14 minutes of the new La Liga season so far.

The midfielder was one of four City players to move to Southampton in the summer of 2022 thanks to the work of Joe Shields, the club's former head of academy recruitment who was now working in the same role for Saints (he has since joined Chelsea). City received almost £40m ($50m) up front for the four players and Lavia, who was sold for an additional £10m ($12.5m) plus £4.5m ($5.6m) in add-ons is by far the biggest success story.

The Belgian stood out in a nightmare season for Southampton despite playing under three separate managers and was the subject of a bidding war between Chelsea and Liverpool, eventually joining the Blues for £58m ($72m). That earned City an extra £10m ($12.5m) due to his sell-on clause, almost as much as they had received for his move to the south coast a year previously.

The Nigerian joined City just a couple of months after the CFA opened and within six months had made his first-team debut under Pellegrini in August 2015. He scored eight Premier League goals that season despite making only seven starts and 19 substitutes' appearances.

The striker's playing time reduced a bit under Guardiola although he had a starring role in the coach's first Manchester derby, setting up one goal and scoring the other in the 2-1 win at Old Trafford. Iheanacho was sold the following summer to Leicester City and until Palmer's move to Chelsea was the academy's most expensive sale.

The winger, born in Wythenshawe, the same district of south Manchester that Marcus Rashford hails from, made his City debut in the League Cup in September 2020. He made 41 appearances in all competitions but only 13 of those were starts, just three of which came in the Premier League.

Palmer made a strong start to this season, scoring in the UEFA Super Cup and Community Shield, only to find his chances of a first-team place severely reduced when the club signed Jeremy Doku.

Palmer's scarce first-team experience did not affect his transfer value though, as Chelsea agreed to pay up to £42.5m ($53m) for him on transfer deadline day, making him the most expensive City academy player.

Foden is very much the golden boy of City's academy, the example to follow for any young hopeful. Foden, who had a ball attached to his pram as a toddler, joined the academy when he was aged six and was always destined for the top.

Guardiola saw so much promise in him that, in 2019, he made a very bold statement: "He has everything to become one of the best players. Phil is the most, most, most talented player I have ever seen in my career as a manager."

Four years on and Foden is not only a five-time Premier League winner and the holder of a Champions League medal, he is also now one of City's most influential players and has grabbed the opportunity to rule the team's midfield in the absence of Kevin De Bruyne with both hands.

Lewis made his first-team debut at the beginning of last season and the more Guardiola saw of him the more he liked. "He is our little Philipp Lahm," raved the coach in January. "There are players who play for themselves really well, but he has the ability to make all the team play better. He has this ability and it's not easy to find it."

Lewis' understanding of the game and his all-round ability led Guardiola to play him in the hybrid defender-midfield role that John Stones would go on to master later in the season on the way to City winning the treble.

The coach also felt the teenager's hunger was pivotal to keep the rest of the team - many of whom had won multiple trophies - motivated. He explained: "For him it’s 'wow,' it’s new. ‘I want to be there, I want to play, I want to stay a long time here, I want to win one Premier League.' And this energy is contagious. He gives it to me and he gives it to the players. It puts pressure on the other ones. And it is so necessary.”

Lewis has a huge role to play in City's future after signing a bumper new five-year deal at the start of the season.