Jack Grealish left out of Manchester City’s Club World Cup squad | Football News

In what could be a move that foreshadows Jack Grealish’s future at Manchester City, the club left out their 100 million pounds signing from the upcoming Club World Cup squad. City manager Pep Guardiola named a 27-member strong contingent with Grealish’s name a notable omission.
The England forward was a British record signing when he moved to City from Aston Villa in 2021 and went on to help the club win three Premier League titles, the Champions League and a host of other trophies. But he has become an increasingly peripheral figure and made only seven league starts last season.
City’s squad includes four new players signed in time to take part in the month-long tournament in the United States: Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Marcus Bettinelli. In January, City also spent big to sign Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis as Guardiola began his overhaul of a squad that saw its dominance of English football broken Liverpool last season.

Your City travelling squad for the @FIFACWC 📋🔒#TakeItToTheWorld 🌍 pic.twitter.com/J3j8zRuP3g
— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 11, 2025
Back in January, Guardiola had said that Savinho was starting in place of Grealish because the Brazilian was in better shape than the England player. He also said Grealish has to fight for his place in the starting XI.
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“Savinho is in better shape and everything than Jack, and that’s why I played Savinho. Do I want the Jack that won the treble? Yeah, I want it, but I try to be honest with myself for that. They have to fight. You can say it’s unfair,” Guardiola said.
“If you think that, then it’s fine, but you have to prove (to me), ‘Okay, I’m going to fight with Savinho, to deserve to play in that position’, every single day, every single week and every single month,” the Spaniard added.
But things didn’t get any better for Grealish in the remaining few months of the season as he remained out of favour and City finished trophy-less for the first time in many years.

City’s first match at the 32-team CWC tournament is against Wydad Casablanca next Wednesday in Philadelphia. The other teams in the group are Juventus and Abu Dhabi’s Al Ain.
(With agency inputs)
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