Manchester City are on course to set a new record this summer from the sales of their academy graduates.
England Under-21 goalkeeper James Trafford and Northern Ireland international Shea Charles will bank the club a guaranteed £25.5m with the potential for another £8.5m in performance-related payments; Burnley and Southampton are the respective buyers. Those two sales will form part of another impressive income generated by Txiki Begiristain and the recruitment team that shows the strength of the City academy in producing professional players with high potential.
City have recorded sizeable figures for homegrown talent since 2017, when Kelechi Iheanacho was sold to Leicester for a club record £25m (since surpassed) and Jadon Sancho pioneered a path for young talent hungry for immediate first-team football with his £8m move to Dortmund. The Blues earned another £10m from Sancho from a sell-on clause when he moved to United in 2021 and last summer enjoyed their biggest returns yet from the academy when the sales of Romeo Lavia, Gavin Bazunu, Juan Larios, Sam Edozie, Aro Muric and Darko Gyabi earned them a guaranteed £46.5m and up to £53m if extra targets are met.
