New Player Overview - Market Insights

Alongside the new manager, the transfer window saw many new faces with Enzo Fernández, Elliot Anderson, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Illiam Ndiaye, Allan and Geronimo Rulli all joining the men's team. Here we look at the signings off the pitch, and how they can be utilised to reach consumers in key markets. 

In total, the new players have almost 30 million followers on social media, taking the total across the squad to over 260 million.

Enzo Fernández

Fernandes was the most talked about signing of the summer in the world of football, with over 660,000 mentions on social in the first 3 days of his signing. This was almost double the next most talked about, Anthony Gordon’s move to Barcelona and more talked about than the previous season’s biggest transfer when Alexander Isak joined Liverpool. 

A runner-up at this Summer’s World Cup, he was named young player of the tournament at the previous edition in 2022 when Argentina took the title. He joins other star players from the country including Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta in what is a key market for the club.

There are 11 million social media followers of Man City in Argentina, more than any other Premier League club. This fanbase is highly engaged, ranking in the top 10 in terms of both followers and impressions on our social channels last season. 

Ayyoub Bouaddi

Bouaddi joins as one of the most exciting prospects in world football with the 18-year-old Moroccan amongst the youngest players to appear at the World Cup where he started five of the nation’s matches and has recently been nominated for the Ballon D’Or’s Young Talent of the Year award.

He joins a number of star players from North Africa to have played for the club, including Riyadh Mahrez and current midfielder Rayan Aït-Nouri from Algeria and Omar Marmoush from Egypt, a region where the club has a huge and passionate following.

Despite having a population of under 40 million, Morocco is the eighth largest market for the club by social followers and the seventh highest by impressions with over 1 billion in 2025/26. This makes it the second biggest market for social followers per capita behind only Algeria. 

In addition to reaching fans in Morrocco through broadcast and the club’s main channels, we also offer dedicated Arabic language content both on the website and on social to deliver maximum impact.

Allan

Joining from Palmeiras in Brazil where he was named 2025’s Brazilian Breakthrough Player of the Year, Allan joins a host of names from the country including Fernandinho and Ederson to have played for City. 

Brazil is the club’s most engaged market on social, with 14m followers and 3.5 billion impressions in the 2025/26 season. On both the website and on social, Portuguese language content allows us to get closer to fans in the country.

The club activates in the market through both digital and physical activations, with an upcoming campaign planned around Carnival in February 2027.

Elliot Anderson

One of English football’s most heralded prospects, Anderson joins the ranks of Phil Foden, Marc Guehi and Nico O’Reilly in representing top level domestic talent at the club. The World Cup was a breakout moment for Anderson, with his social following doubling since the tournament began as his profile grew on the global stage.

The UK continues to deliver huge audiences for the club with 77 million tuning in to watch on TV during the 2025/26 season and over 1.1 billion impressions on social.

If you have any questions about how you can utilise your partnership to reach and of these key markets or others, please contact your Partnership Marketing contact.