As we look back at the 2024-25 season, we saw results on the pitch that were below our expectations, but we also saw how we reacted to them, and how the Club continued with its solid growth trajectory.
On the pitch, we started very strong, as the only unbeaten team in Europe, but very quickly we had to endure an unprecedented run of serious injuries, in the same team positions. We lost competitiveness and went through a long streak of negative results. The team was, however, resilient, it endured the challenge and regrouped. We recovered some injured players, recruited four players in the winter window, and we ended up qualifying to play in the Champions League, unbeaten in the last ten games of the season.
The signings we made in the winter were not improvised or short-term fixes, they were an acceleration of the investment that was planned for the following years. In the four years preceding, Manchester City won nine trophies, including one Champions League and four Premier Leagues in a row, and did it with the lowest net investment compared to our rival teams. Cycles develop and the most experienced players give way to younger ones. This is a continued transition process, and we anticipated players that joined us about ten years ago would naturally reach a point where they would end their time with the Club. Among these fantastic players, we saw İlkay Gündoğan leaving Manchester City, and Kevin de Bruyne enjoy an emotional farewell at the Etihad Stadium as one of the best players in the history of our Club. We will always remember and be thankful to King Kev.
Another important highlight of the season was to see Rodri win a very well-deserved Men’s Ballon d’Or at the time when he was enduring a long, painful injury. Rodri will be in the history books as the first Manchester City player to win the Ballon d’Or, and I am sure he will not be the last.
The Club’s fundamentals continue to be very strong, and we remain firmly committed to our long-term strategy built on beautiful football, operational excellence, community impact and continuous innovation. As a demonstration of this commitment, we saw Erling Haaland and PUMA sign long-term contract extensions with the Club.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend Aitor “Txiki” Begiristain for the far-reaching impact that he had as our Director of Football over the last 13 years. Txiki has been instrumental to the Club’s success during this period, winning his first Premier League title with Manuel Pellegrini in 2013-14, before delivering another six in partnership with Pep Guardiola, along with the UEFA Champions League in 2023. Txiki supervised more than £1 billion in player sales during his time with Manchester City, and his judgement and calming presence were, and remain, a hallmark of our operations in football management. We are very pleased to welcome Hugo Viana as our new Director of Football. He has already been playing a key role in the regeneration of our first team squad since coming on board in April 2025, working alongside Txiki for several months in a seamless transition.
Our women’s first team finished fourth in the Women’s Super League and runners-up in the League Cup. Among a number of personnel changes, we welcomed Andrée Jeglertz as our new Head Coach, Therese Sjögran as Director of Football, and Hannah Dingley as Head of Girls’ Academy. Meanwhile, the construction of a £10 million, 17,000-square-foot facility to serve as the home of our women’s first team signifies the depth of our commitment to women’s football and to giving our players the best possible chance of success.
Our academy teams had another exceptional year, with the EDS winning its fourth Premier League 2 title, our Under-18s finishing top of their domestic league, and our Under-9s to Under-12s winning another eight competitions between them. Importantly, former academy players such as Nico O’Reilly, James McAtee, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey and Kaden Braithwaite all made their first team debuts for Manchester City during the 2024-25 season.
Manchester City continued to expand its global footprint. Online, the Club outperformed all Premier League clubs in terms of video views across the five largest social platforms, with our active social media audience growing by 60% year-on-year. For the fourth year in a row, Manchester City was ranked by Brand Finance as the most valuable football brand in the Premier League.
In Manchester, we are finishing the construction of the expanded North Stand (due to open during the 2025-26 season), a new hotel, museum and fanzone adjacent to the Etihad Stadium. Together with Co-op Live, the Manchester Entertainment District will be a fabulous development for the whole city of Manchester to enjoy. We are also working on the installation of thousands of solar panels across the City Football Academy, which will make us one of the largest producers of renewable energy in global football.
It has also been a year of continued progress across City Football Group. We were thrilled to see Bahia return to Copa Libertadores for the first time in three decades. We were also proud to celebrate the tenth anniversary of New York City FC’s first MLS season. Elsewhere in the Group, we were pleased to see Montevideo promoted back to Uruguay’s top division and Club Bolivar crowned national champions for the 31st time, while Melbourne City FC became the first Australian club to have its men’s and women’s teams both qualify for Asian Champions League football in the same season – with our men’s team as A-League Champions.
Throughout the 2024-25 season, the Club has continued to have a positive impact on the people of Manchester and the communities in which we operate around the world. Through our landmark City in the Community initiative, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2026, we have engaged with almost 17,000 people in Greater Manchester over the past season with the goal of empowering better lives through football.
Our revenues for the season were £694.1 million, the third highest in our history, despite the impact of the early exit in the Champions League, and we reported a marginal loss of £9.9m, after recording profits in nine of the last 10 years. We also welcomed 11 new commercial partners into Manchester City’s portfolio during the 2024-25 season.
I would like to thank His Highness Sheikh Mansour, our shareholders, Chairman and Board for their continued long-term vision, strategic guidance and invaluable support. We endured a difficult season from which we learned a lot, and whatever success we achieve in the future will be, in part, thanks to the learnings and the character we developed under difficult circumstances. “Win or learn” as we often say to ourselves.
We look to the future with ambition and determination, convinced that we have the systems, people and culture in place to continue our ambitious journey.
