Manchester City have made it one of their key strategies in recent years to scour every corner of the planet for potential talent and hoover them up into the system.
With their state-of-the-art academy and vast scouting network, no other club is set up to harvest as many players as City. It's impossible to keep track of all the promising footballers that have been signed, with the majority never even meeting Pep Guardiola, so it's easy to forget about some of them.
Here are five City players you may have forgotten are still contracted to the club.
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Zack Steffen
Goalkeeper Zack Steffen took over Claudio Bravo in serving as Ederson's understudy in 2020 after returning from a season-long loan at Fortuna Dusseldorf. Though he only managed to get two Premier League and two Champions League appearances, he was regularly played in cup competitions and applied himself well even if lacking his Brazilian colleague's ability on the ball.
That would go on to cost him last season, as he allowed himself to be tackled by Sadio Mane in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool, leading to the Blues' exit from the competition. Steffen joined Middlesbrough on loan in the summer in order to get regular playing time ahead of the World Cup but then wasn't selected for the United States squad in Qatar.
Yan Couto
City announced the signing of highly-rated full-back Couto back in 2020 off the back of the teenager's impressive performances in Brazil Under-17s' World Cup triumph a few months prior. Couto has gotten closer to the first team than most youngsters who get absorbed into the City Football Group, as he was named on the bench for last year's Community Shield defeat to Leicester.
But, now 20, he is into his third season out on loan as he gains first-team experience. He first went to Girona, spent last season at Braga but is now back at Girona again where he actually faced his parent club recently in a friendly.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis
After joining the club at just six years old and shining at every age group until he made his first-team debut, it looked as though Taylor Harwood-Bellis would be following his fellow Stockport native Phil Foden into City history books. However, things haven't gone to plan since the centre-back made his eight first-team appearances with the last coming nearly two years ago.
The 20-year-old has spent the last few years on loan at Blackburn, Anderlecht, Stoke and has now once again met up with Vincent Kompany at Burnley. With the likes of Arijanet Muric and CJ Egan-Riley signing for the Clarets permanently, it would be easy to think Harwood-Bellis has too, but he remains only on loan.
Yangel Herrera
Yangel Herrera is now 24 and has been a City player since 2017(!) but is yet to come anywhere near to playing for the first team. The Venezuelan is a seasoned international at this stage and has a heap of experience after several loan spells in Spain where he now finds himself at Girona. The midfielder still has 18 months on his contract.
Morgan Rogers
Forward Morgan Rogers arrived with a fair deal of excitement from West Brom in 2019 and hope was high that he would be a star at City. A loan spell at Lincoln was a moderate success but he flattered to deceive at Bournemouth last season. The 20-year-old started in the recent friendly against Girona after travelling to Abu Dhabi with the team but didn't impress. Another loan move is likely in his future.
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