Club travel to Asia for the first time since 2023, but Enzo Maresca will be without a number of key players
Manchester City will be going on a tour of Asia as part of their pre-season programme.
The squad will depart on Tuesday and head for Hong Kong, where they will base their camp until they travel to Seoul, South Korea by 5 August.
City start the season with the Community Shield match against Arsenal in Cardiff, Wales on 16 August, after which they play at home to Bournemouth on 23 August, so they will be expected to return to England from Asia well before that date.
There are three games to be played on the tour. New head coach Enzo Maresca and his squad will face Inter Milan in Hong Kong on Saturday, 1 August. Then after that, they face South Korea’s K-League All Stars on 5 August and Atletico Madrid on 9 August, both games in Seoul.
Which Manchester City Players Will Travel to Asia?
A number of City’s senior players are still on break after playing at the World Cup. Those who represented England, Norway, Spain and France at the stateside tournament will miss the tour due to their teams reaching at least the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
That means Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Elliot Anderson, Rodri and Nico O’Reilly will not join up with Maresca’s squad for now, although the manager will be able to work with most of his key players, including Ruben Dias, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol and Antoine Semenyo, all five of whom will be in Asia.
Nico Gonzalez, Rico Lewis, Savinho, Matheus Nunes, Tijjani Reijnders, Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri will also be in the east, alongside Abdukodir Khusanov, who has recently signed a new contract and is expected to be a key player for Maresca in defence next season.
Jack Grealish spent last season on loan at Everton and it is uncertain if he will be returning there or have a place under Maresca, but the head coach indicated he wants to work with the player in pre-season, to judge him closely and decide if there is a place for him in the squad before the new Premier League season begins.
Grealish is still recovering from a foot surgery though, which complicates the matter. Even injured players have often gone on tours, but in this case it would rob the trip of its entire essence, since the whole point is for Maresca to play Grealish and observe him.
One player guaranteed to travel is Kalvin Phillips, who many fans may be justified to have forgotten after several loan spells away from the club. He is still a City player and will be in Asia, although his future after that is far less certain.
What Will the Tour Be Like for City?
The tour will be Maresca’s first chance to work extensively on the training ground with his players after replacing Pep Guardiola. Crucially, he will be working with most of the squad, other than those key players missing due to the World Cup.
Besides the games against Inter, the K-League All Stars and Atletico, City will also of course engage in commercial programmes involving their fans, though it is not clear what form these will take. The club’s new away kit will be launched in Hong Kong during this time.
The last time City travelled to Asia was in 2023, when they played in Tokyo and Seoul. They had a full squad that year due to the absence of any international tournaments that summer.
