Manchester City are widely regarded as one of the world's most successful football clubs, and numerous high-profile players have experienced significant declines in their careers after leaving the team.
Leading Premier League teams have been fortunate enough to possess some of the most iconic football players in history, in addition to several talented players who failed to achieve their full potential after departing the Etihad Stadium.
We have identified six players who were considered to be among the world's best during their time at City but saw their performance decline significantly after leaving the club.
Raheem Sterling
Even three years after leaving Manchester City, only Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero have scored more goals under Pep Guardiola than the 121 goals Sterling accumulated.
It's often overlooked how dominant the forward was in his prime, demonstrating himself to be a formidable opponent for both domestic and continental defenses, in addition to his achievements for England.
Considering his £47.5million transfer to Chelsea, City undoubtedly made the right choice in selling when they did.
Sterling still poses a decent threat going forward, but he has not been able to score in double digits in the league since leaving Manchester.
He is currently having an unimpactful 2024-25 season, making brief but inconsequential appearances for Arsenal.
Joao Cancelo
It still feels like only yesterday that Cancelo was widely regarded as one of the top full-backs in the Premier League, if not the entire continent.
He's now playing for Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League, having fallen out with Pep Guardiola and previously being loaned out to Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Cancelo continues to receive call-ups to represent Portugal alongside Ronaldo, but one wouldn't have anticipated this precipitous decline from his former glory, especially considering his starring role in City's initial two titles of their four-peat dynasty.
Robinho
This one appeared to be a groundbreaking moment at the time.
Yes, Robinho didn't live up to expectations in the end, but the fact that City was able to secure the deal initially demonstrated that they were now serious about their ambitions following their takeover by Sheikh Mansour.
The city spent £32.5 million on the Brazilian player in 2008, but he remained in England for only 18 months before looking for a new opportunity.
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Mario Balotelli
Balotelli transferred to the Etihad on his 20th birthday and left after just two-and-a-half seasons, however, his time with City is still the most notable period of his career.
After scoring with his shoulder, rolling in many crucial penalties and laying on the assist for that Aguero goal, it is easy to see why.
Pairing that talent and boldness with a truly dismal disciplinary history would result in an extremely disappointing outcome.
By December 2012, as his time at Manchester was nearing its end, he decided to take the matter to a tribunal after being fined two weeks' worth of wages for his ill-discipline.
Balotelli departed for Milan shortly afterwards and has since spent the remainder of his career moving from one European club to another.
Pablo Zabaleta
After a one-year stint under Pep Guardiola, Zabaleta joined West Ham in 2017 when his contract with Manchester City expired.
The full-back was a highly regarded member of the City team and made 333 appearances for the club during his nine-year tenure in Manchester.
Zabaleta spent three years with West Ham and after doing some television commentary, the 39-year-old has since moved into coaching.
His departure paved the way for Kyle Walker to join from Tottenham and win six Premier League championships, yet Zabaleta remained one of the finest full-backs of his generation.
Joe Hart
From the beginning, it was evident that Guardiola did not consider Hart to be a top choice, even though he was England's leading goalkeeper and had won the Premier League twice with Manchester City.
The new manager wanted to implement a tiki-taka style of play, so he promptly dismissed Hart and instead signed Claudio Bravo in his first season at the club.
After a couple of loan spells with Torino and West Ham, the goalkeeper was eventually sold to Burnley in 2018 for a fee of approximately $4.5 million.
Following a successful late-career resurgence with Celtic, Hart retired at the end of the previous season with a total of 780 appearances to his credit.
He can look back on a successful career, but his reputation never fully rebounded from the fallout of Guardiola's decision in the summer of 2016.