Manchester City

History of Manchester City: From the Third Tier to the Treble, and an Eighth FA Cup

Relegated to the third tier in 1998, Manchester City became within twenty years world football's tactical benchmark: four consecutive titles, a historic treble in 2023, and an eighth FA Cup won at Wembley in May 2026.

1. Parish Origins and the First Trophies (1880–1965)

The club was founded in 1880 as St. Mark's, in the working-class district of West Gorton, on the initiative of an Anglican parish seeking to give local young men an activity and to counter gang violence. It became Ardwick AFC in 1887 and then Manchester City in 1894. The club won its first FA Cup in 1904 and its first English championship in 1937, before experiencing wildly uneven fortunes.

2. The Golden Age of Mercer and Allison (1965–1976)

The partnership of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison gave City their first great period: champions of England in 1968, FA Cup winners in 1969, then a Cup Winners' Cup and League Cup double in 1970 — the club's first European trophy. Three difficult decades followed.

3. The Fall and the Rebuild (1977–2007)

The 1980s and 1990s were marked by instability. In 1998 Manchester City dropped into the third tier, the lowest point in their history, while neighbours Manchester United dominated England and Europe. The club climbed back steadily, leaving the fabled Maine Road in 2003 to move into the City of Manchester Stadium, built for the Commonwealth Games.

4. 2008: The Abu Dhabi Takeover and Rebirth (2008–2015)

In September 2008 the Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club, opening an era of heavy investment in the squad, the infrastructure and the academy. The first trophy in thirty-five years arrived with the 2011 FA Cup. Then came 13 May 2012: on the final day, City needed to win to be champions and found themselves trailing QPR in the 90th minute. Two stoppage-time goals, including Sergio Agüero's at 93 minutes and 20 seconds, gave the Citizens their first title since 1968, snatched from under Manchester United's noses. Another followed in 2014.

5. The Guardiola Era: Total Dominance (2016–2024)

The arrival of Pep Guardiola in 2016 turned City into a tactical laboratory. In 2017–18 the team set the all-time record of 100 points in the Premier League. In 2019 they completed an unprecedented English domestic treble (league, FA Cup, League Cup). Erling Haaland, who arrived in 2022, shattered the 38-game season scoring record in his first campaign with 36 goals.

The summit came in Istanbul in June 2023: by beating Inter Milan 1–0 in the Champions League final, City completed a league, FA Cup and Champions League treble, a feat no English club had achieved since Manchester United in 1999. The club then won a fourth consecutive title in 2024, a first in the entire history of English football.

6. The 2025–26 Season: An Eighth FA Cup

The 2025–26 season brought one major trophy and a crown narrowly missed. On 16 May 2026 at Wembley, Manchester City beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final: their eighth, at the end of a fourth consecutive final in the competition — a consistency without equal.

In the league, the title race went to the wire. On 19 May 2026, City's 1–1 draw at Bournemouth handed the Premier League definitively to Arsenal, crowned with a match to spare. In the Champions League the run ended in the round of 16, with a heavy elimination by Real Madrid, 5–1 winners on aggregate.

7. Looking to 2026–27: Reclaiming the Crown

Since the restart, Manchester City have pursued two objectives: taking back from Arsenal a domestic title they have won six times in eight years, and returning to the European summit. The club draws on the Etihad Campus, one of the most advanced training complexes in the world, on an academy now regularly feeding the first team, and on a playing model that has become the tactical reference point of contemporary football.

Honours, Stadium and Legends

Main honours: ten English championships, eight FA Cups, eight League Cups, one Champions League (2023), one Cup Winners' Cup (1970), one UEFA Super Cup (2023) and one Club World Cup (2023). The Etihad Stadium, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and expanded several times, holds more than fifty thousand spectators. Sergio Agüero is the club's all-time leading scorer. Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee, Francis Lee, German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann — who finished the 1956 FA Cup final with a broken neck — Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Yaya Touré, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland make up its pantheon. The Manchester derby against United is one of the most-watched rivalries in the world. Around the stadium, the Etihad Campus brings together the first team, the academy and the women's team on a single site, reflecting the long-term project launched in 2008; City Football Group, the club's parent company, has since built a worldwide network of partner clubs, from New York to Melbourne and from Girona to Yokohama.