Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side have a whole host of players who can stake a claim for being the best players in the world in their respective positions — over the past few years and currently as well.
With how successful Manchester City have been since Guardiola took over the helm in 2016, their players in question have merited the widespread praise they have received across the board.
While Pep Guardiola’s tactical genius has certainly played a key role in City’s success, it has also helped their cause that they have recruited excellently to sign a special group of players to get them across the line.
With Txiki Begiristain set to leave Manchester City at the end of the 2024/2025 season, all eyes will be on Hugo Viana to ensure he maintains the world-class standard of recruitment at the club — with his appointment even being confirmed on X.
This campaign, Pep Guardiola will be hoping that his players live up to their billing.
Being one of the best teams in the world, Manchester City will be gunning for every possible trophy rather than prioritising any one in particular.
Where Erling Haaland, Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne ranked amongst 10 best players in the world
For City to win even one major trophy this season, their players will have to be at their brilliant best.
The likes of Arsenal and Liverpool in the Premier League as well as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in the Champions League will be looking to dampen their hopes of winning silverware.
Regardless of how Manchester City fare this term, FourFourTwo’s list of the best 20 players in the world named four of their stars in the list: with Erling Haaland (2), Rodri (5) and Kevin De Bruyne (10) in the top 10, while Phil Foden was ranked in 17th place.
Other big names included Vinicius Jr, who finished first in the list while Kylian Mbappe was ranked third.
Haaland was described as a “force of nature”, Rodri was labelled as “irreplaceable” in this City side, De Bruyne was classed as a “modern-day Premier League legend” and Foden’s form last season was stated as “dazzling.”
The Manchester City quartet have also been widely lauded by fellow players and pundits.
Ian Wright compared Haaland to Cristiano Ronaldo for his off-the-pitch habits while stating that if the star striker continues to stay disciplined, he could score goals at the staggering rate the Portuguese legend has.
Alvaro Morata feels Rodri deserves the Ballon d’Or after how he helped Spain win the European Championship this year.
While playing a word association game, Rodri described De Bruyne as “the greatest of all time” — indicating how much respect the midfield maestro commands from his teammates.
Virgil van Dijk labelled Foden as an “unbelievable player” — which goes to show how highly the 24-year-old is rated by his peers.
The Manchester City superstars are well and truly an outstanding bunch of players.
Haaland, Rodri, De Bruyne and Phil Foden ranked in Premier League list
Haaland, Rodri, De Bruyne and Foden are also some of the Premier League’s crème de la crème.
The City stars are arguably the best players in their respective positions in the English top-flight. Here is where Haaland, Rodri, De Bruyne and Foden were named in the list in comparison to other Premier League players.
| PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYER | RANKING |
| ERLING HAALAND | 2 |
| RODRI | 5 |
| MOHAMED SALAH | 7 |
| WILLIAM SALIBA | 8 |
| KEVIN DE BRUYNE | 10 |
| TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD | 11 |
| BUKAYO SAKA | 13 |
| VIRGIL VAN DIJK | 15 |
| ALISSON BECKER | 16 |
| PHIL FODEN | 17 |
| COLE PALMER | 18 |
| DECLAN RICE | 19 |
Haaland and Rodri were the Premier League’s highest-ranked players.
Mohamed Salah and William Saliba were ranked higher than De Bruyne.
As for Foden, several Premier League stars were named above him in the list.
Apart from the aforementioned named, the other players include Trent Alexander-Arnold, Bukayo Saka, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker.
The likes of De Bruyne and Foden in particular will be aiming to rank higher by the same time next year amongst both the best players in the world and in the Premier League.
