Pep Guardiola’s side are on a record-breaking run of English top-flight titles and current World Champions while Gareth Taylor’s team are now back in the Champions League and looking towards a first WSL success since 2016.
Our sustained success has again seen us well represented on the Ballon d’Or shortlists for the 2024 award ceremony – the most prestigious and glamorous night in the sport.
How to follow the 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremony
The greats of the world’s game will descend on the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on the evening of Monday 28 October.
We’ll have full coverage of the night on our channels, with a live show available on mancity.com and our official app starring City favourites past and present.
Ahead of that, we look to all at City who may come away with the awards later this month.
Men’s award
Ranked the third best defender in the world last year after coming behind Kim Min-jae and Josko Gvardiol in the Ballon d’Or ranking, Dias remains the rock at the very centre of our defence.
To win trophies, you have to be strong defensively. It’s one of the oldest truths in the game.
Dias is Guardiola’s chief lieutenant on the pitch when it comes to putting it all on the line.
The Portuguese international prepares impeccably and takes the utmost care of himself. He truly lives to keep the ball out of his net.
Since joining City in September 2020, he has never not won the Premier League.
Another 45 appearances came last season as we lifted the league title as well as the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
The Premier League Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, PFA Players’ Player of the Year and City Player of the Year enjoyed the best season of his still developing career in 2023/24.
Still just 24, he has already won 17 major honours, played 275 times and scored 87 goals in a City shirt.
But last season saw him make the crucial difference time and time again and, as Pep Guardiola said after his hat-trick against Aston Villa in April, that’s what wins awards.
He played 53 games – more than any other season in his career – and many of them in a central role, scoring a phenomenal 27 goals and laying on 12 assists.
As one of our own, Foden is already a City legend but continued form like that will see him enter the pantheon of the game’s greatest players throughout history.
Our Norwegian was second last year – only losing out to Lionel Messi, who largely collected his record eighth award for his central role in Argentina’s World Cup success.
Not perturbed by narrowly missing out on the greatest individual prize in football, Haaland continued to set the standard for goalscorers all over the world over the last 12 months.
With his great provider Kevin De Bruyne out for more than half the season and himself injured for a couple of months, Haaland still cruised to his second Premier League Golden Boot and equalled the second-best tally in a singular season for goals in City’s history – with only his 2022/23 haul bettering it.
He now has 100 City goals, needing just 105 appearances to reach the landmark. That equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s previous top five European league record, needing 105 games to score 100 Real Madrid goals.
Individual awards tend to favour attacking players and there’s little doubt that few, if any, scare defenders and change games like Haaland does so frequently.
Our Spaniard has been the beating heart of Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering side for almost all of his five years in Manchester now.
While he will miss the rest of the 2024/25 season and Guardiola will do his best to cover for Rodrigo’s absence, there’s no doubt he’d rather have his No.16 available.
He is the complete player, dictating tempo and helping us build attacks from back to front while athletically providing cover and never finding himself out of position.
That is before you mention the crucial finishes at the very end of so many tight games.
Having finished fifth last year, Rodrigo’s game reached another level altogether in 2023/24 and no one doubts he would be a truly deserving winner this time around.
Women’s award
Adored by her team-mates, coaches and fans, Gareth Taylor’s City team would look very different without Hasegawa’s influence.
There is rarely a move that doesn’t involve the midfield metronome, whether she’s winning the ball back and laying it off, or playing a cutting pass through the lines for the attackers to pick up in space.
The Japan international is now even helping international colleagues Ayaka Yamashita, Risa Shimizu and Aoba Fujino get used to life in Manchester.
Completing 1251 passes in the 2023/24 Women’s Super League – comfortably the most of any midfielder – Hasegawa mixes up her game to play short, medium and long range passes that act as the pivot for almost every single City attack.
The flying winger has been one of the world’s best players for many years now, despite still being just 24 years old.
One of the first names on the teamsheet for Gareth Taylor and England boss Sarina Wiegman, Hemp is capable of scoring and assisting team-mates every which way you can imagine.
Whether it’s dribbling around opponents, picking out the perfect pass or whipping in crosses from the touchline, Hemp is a defender’s nightmare.
In 2023/24, she scored 12 times in 29 appearances for City and was yet again named in the WSL Team of the Year.
In the new season, she again looks at her best in a positive start for City domestically and in Europe.
Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw
Bunny breaks new ground consistently.
Our incredible striker is now the Club’s record scorer with 74 goals in 85 appearances across all competitions and earned the WSL Golden Boot with 21 strikes last season.
In 2022, she was the first player outside of USA internationals to be named the CONCACAF Player of the Year and last year she finished 24th in the voting for the Ballon d’Or.
As her incredible achievements continue year on year, her status as one of the game’s premier players only grows and grows.
Kopa Trophy
The brilliant Brazilian has had a sparkling start to life at City.
However, his nomination for the award that celebrates the best U21 footballer in the world will be down to his spectacular form for Girona in 2023/24.
The 20-year-old winger scored 11 times and provided 10 assists for the Spanish club last season as they achieved a third-place finish and reached the Champions League for the first time in their history.
After just a few City appearances, it’s easy to see how Savinho could have had such an impact and there’s a sense of anticipation that he could go on to even bigger and better things while at the Etihad.
To win the Kopa Trophy, he will have to come out above talent from all over the world – in the eyes of the jury made up of former Ballon d’Or winners at least.
Those nominees includes Barcelona’s Pau Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal and PSG midfielders Joao Neves and Warren Zaire-Emery.
There are also two players from local rivals Manchester United - Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo – to complete the English representation.
Elsewhere, Arda Guler of Turkiye and Real Madrid, Karim Konate of Salzburg and Ivory Coast and Mathys Tel of Bayern Munich and France are also in with a shout.
Men’s Coach of the Year
City fans all know that Guardiola is the best manager in the world.
The Catalan has led us to an incredible 18 major honours since moving to the Etihad Stadium in 2016 and has broken a whole host of records on the way.
In 2024, he’s taken us to the record fourth successive Premier League title – holding off the challenge of Arsenal and Liverpool in the year after climbing the true summit of the European game and winning the Treble.
This is the first time that a Coach of the Year will be awarded at the Ballon d’Or ceremony and our man would be a more than deserving winner, of course.
Guardiola is up against Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti, Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso, Euro 2024 winning Luis de la Fuente, Atalanta’s Gian Piero Gasperini and Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni.
Men’s Club of the Year
We are one of only two clubs to have previously been named Men’s Club of the Year.
After Chelsea won the inaugural award in 2021, we have since claimed the prize in 2022 and 2023.
With six nominations on the men’s shortlist in 2022 and seven in 2023 – as well as consistent trophies – we have been one of the most uttered names at the Ballon d’Or in recent years.
2023 saw us claim the Big Five trophies – the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
This year, we have gone on to win our fourth successive Premier League title – becoming the first English club ever to be national champions that many years in a row.
We’ll be up against Champions League and La Liga winners Real Madrid, Bundesliga champions and Europa League runners up Bayer Leverkusen, Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund and surprise Spanish side Girona.
We’ll have full coverage of the Ballon d’Or ceremony on Monday 28 October on mancity.com and our official app.
