Philippe Sandler's time at Manchester City has come to an end after he completed a permanent transfer to Feyenoord on Tuesday.
Despite the January transfer window coming to a close on Monday, Sandler was still able to make a move after City allowed him to leave for nothing.
That left the centre-back free to return to his native Netherlands with Feyenoord on a free transfer, signing an initial deal until the end of the season with the option to extend.
Feyenoord sporting director Frank Arnesen said: "The Netherlands is familiar territory for Philippe. Due to his years abroad, he comes back as a more experienced player.
"In addition, he has become physically stronger. We expect that he as a player and we as a club will benefit a lot from that.
"We had to look very specifically and creatively in this transfer window at how and in which positions we could strengthen the selection – taking both the short and long term into account.
"The fact that we managed to bring in a pure central defender as a reinforcement just before the transfer deadline is very nice and makes us less vulnerable in that line too."
The Blues recruited the 24-year-old from PEC Zwolle in 2018 and he made two appearances for the club in January 2019, a cameo in the 7-0 rout of Rotherham United in the FA Cup and the full 90 minutes in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg win against Burton Albion.
The following summer he linked up with former City captain Vincent Kompany at Anderlecht on loan but then a series of injuries began to halt his progress.
Multiple knee injuries plagued him throughout 2019 and 2020 before an ankle injury that required surgery kept him sidelined for the majority of the 2020/21 season.
The Dutchman spent the first half of the current campaign on loan at French side Troyes but that was cut short towards the end of January to facilitate a permanent exit.
Sandler will wear No.13 for Feyenoord.
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