Manchester City defender leaves for Saudi Pro League at £40m club loss after apparent Guardiola fallout

João Cancelo moved to the Etihad in 2019 from Juventus in a deal worth £60m, reportedly making him the most expensive right-back in the world. He scored nine goals in his 154 appearances for Manchester City and has won the Premier League and EFL Cup with the club.

The Portuguese international’s best season came in 2020/21, when City reclaimed the Premier League title from Liverpool and Cancelo was named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year.

However, he fell out of the starting line-up in 2022/23 and was eventually loaned out to Bayern Munich after a reported falling-out with Pep Guardiola over his playing time. Cancelo had previously established a slot at left-back, with Kyle Walker keeping his place on the other side of the pitch, but began to fall out of favour after the World Cup in December 2022.

When his move to Germany was confirmed early in 2023, he said: "I've not had much game time in the past few weeks, which influenced my decision. There was speculation that my relationship with Pep was not the best, but (the) fact is I wanted to play more.”

After winning the Bundesliga in 2023, the 30-year-old was again loaned out last season to Barcelona. He was still under contract in Manchester until 2027 and Guardiola this summer appeared to leave the door open to him remaining at the Etihad as they seek to add an unprecedented fifth Premier League title in a row.

However, he was omitted from the squad for the Community Shield against Manchester United as well as their first Premier League games. Now he has signed a lucrative deal with Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal, with the fee understood to be over £21m. Though it’s significantly less than what City paid for him five years ago, in combination with City’s other sales this summer - particularly Julian Alvarez’s move to Spain at a tidy profit for the Manchester club - leaves them only just short of a record transfer window in sales.

For Cancelo’s part, he will join the likes of Neymar, Aleksandar Mitrović, and Rúben Neves at Al-Hilal - where it’s rumoured he will earn up to €15m a year.