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Manchester City bets big on global expansion of its brand and sport

When Claudio Reyna played for Manchester City more than a decade ago, it was less a soccer club than a disaster.

Just two years removed from the second-tier Football League when Reyna arrived, City lost 48 times in his three full seasons there, narrowly escaping relegation again in 2006.

So it must have been a surprise for Reyna when he returned six years later, this time as an executive for the fledgling City Football Group, to find that the organization had become more a flourishing multinational corporation than a soccer club. A year after winning its first top-flight English title in 44 seasons, the team’s ownership created CFG and began expanding its brand to four continents.