Four players leave Treble-winning Man City as free agents after their contracts expired today, including a one-time £52m star defender and Barcelona-bound midfielder
- June 30 is the date when many players’ contracts across the league expire
- Manchester City have four players leaving the club as free agents this summer
- One is a former £52million signing while another proved a successful captain
The four players on Manchester City‘s released list have now now officially left the club, with Ilkay Gundogan, who has joined Barcelona, and one-time £52million signing Benjamin Mendy another.
It has proven to be a low key start to the summer in terms of incomings and outgoings for the Treble winners.
But four contracts have now expired, with captain Gundogan the biggest loss, which Pep Guardiola has acted swiftly to offset with the £25m signing of Mateo Kovacic.
Mendy, who is facing a retrial over rape and sexual assault claims, has been released by City after six years at the club.
Mendy joined City in 2017 from Monaco for £52m and went on to make 75 appearances before he was arrested in November 2020 following a claim of rape by a 24-year-old woman in his home the previous month.
Four players have left Manchester City as free agents following the expiry of their contracts
Benjamin Mendy has been released by Manchester City following six years at the Etihad
The French defender has not played for City since 2021 after being suspended over rape and sexual assault claims. He was cleared of seven charges but is undergoing a retrial this month
He was released under investigation before he was later accused of sexually assaulting another woman, aged 24, two months later, and while on police bail for that offence, was accused of the rape of three other women, one aged 17 – all offences of which he was since been cleared.
Academy products Terrell Agyemang, a box-to-box midfielder, and Rowan McDonald have also been released upon the expiry of their contracts.
City wanted to keep Gundogan at the Etihad Stadium this summer but did not stretch to offering a two-year contract, while Barcelona settled on a deal that could extend until 2026.
‘One of the hardest calls I had to make was to Pep, telling him that I was going to leave,’ Gundogan said after moving to Spain.
‘All I could do was to say thank you. Not just for this season, or for all the trophies, but for bringing me here in the first place.
‘I will never forget when I hurt my knee at the end of the season with Dortmund [in 2016] and I had to get surgery, I was so worried that City would pull out of the deal for me.
‘But Pep called me on the phone and said they will wait no matter how long it takes.’
