Manchester City FC is a leading professional soccer club in the United Kingdom. FC stands for football club. Soccer is called football in much of the world. The club, also called City or the Blues, competes in the Premier League, the top British soccer league. Since 2003, the team has played its home games at Etihad Stadium (formerly called City of Manchester Stadium) in Manchester, England. Before then, the team had played at Manchester’s Maine Road stadium since 1923.
Manchester City FC began play as a club for St. Mark’s Church in 1880. In 1887, the team turned professional. It moved from the West Gorton area of Manchester to the Ardwick area and was renamed Ardwick AFC (Association Football Club). The team was reorganized and renamed Manchester City FC in 1894. The team played in the Second Division of England’s professional Football League. In 1899, success on the field gained City entry to the Football League’s First Division, the top tier in British soccer. For the next 100 years, the club saw both success and failure, bouncing between the first and second divisions. City has remained in the Premier League (formerly the First Division) since 2002 and has enjoyed great success in recent years. The rivalry between the Blues and their red-clad crosstown rivals, Manchester United, is one of the fiercest in British soccer.
City won its first Football Association (FA) Cup, an annual tournament among British soccer teams, in 1904. City won the FA Cup again in 1934, 1956, 1969, 2011, 2019, and 2023. The Blues won the First Division League Championship in 1937 and 1968. The First Division was renamed the Premier League in 1992. City won Premier League titles in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2024, City became the first club to win the Premier League four years in a row. The club won the annual League Cup tournament in 1970, 1976, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Internationally, City won the European Cup Winners’ Cup, a former tournament among Europe’s domestic league champions, in 1970. City also has competed in the UEFA Champions League, Europe’s elite annual club tournament. UEFA stands for the Union of European Football Associations. In 2023, City won a “treble” by winning the Champions League, the Premier League, and the FA Cup all in the same year.
City has fielded a number of star players over its long history, including goalkeeper Bert Trautmann from Germany and, from England, midfielder Colin Bell, forward Eric Brook, midfielder Alan Oakes, and goalkeeper Frank Swift. Recent stars have included Irish defender Richard Dunne; Argentine defender Pablo Zabaleta; Spanish midfielder David Silva; Norwegian forward Erling Haaland; and two Belgian players, defender Vincent Kompany and midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. For a discussion of soccer positions and formations, see Soccer (Players and officials).
