Italian club greeted by returning Manchester City superstar at City Football Academy training ground | OneFootball

Players of Italian side Palermo – part-owned by the City Football Group – were greeted by Kevin De Bruyne on their final day at Manchester City’s training facility.

Pep Guardiola’s bulk of first-team stars are fresh back at the City Football Academy this week having been permitted by the club to miss the pre-season tour of the United States, to further take on rest following their international commitments this summer.

As such, Manchester City’s first-team squad present in the US was limited in terms of familiar superstar faces for fans to witness in-person, with the likes of Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Rico Lewis, and Oscar Bobb starring for the club.

Kalvin Phillips, Ederson, Stefan Ortega, and Scott Carson also attracted attention from Stateside supporters, but the large share of first-team world stars have only just made their returns to Manchester following the European Championships and summer holidays.

Having returned to the Manchester training base on Friday and Monday, those who returned late last week had a rare opportunity to bump into players from another City Football Group, who were bringing a close to their own pre-season tour.

As revealed by several uploads to Palermo players’ Instagram stories this week, Manchester City’s Belgian midfield legend Kevin De Bruyne was all too keen to pose for photographs and sign shirts with the Italian club’s representatives.

Kevin De Bruyne was joined by a number of other Manchester City first-team players in returning to the club on Friday, with the likes of Jeremy Doku, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Matheus Nunes also reporting back to the City Football Academy for fitness testing.

Their pre-season training with Manchester City will now get underway on Tuesday, with the likes of Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji also returning to the club on Monday for their own fitness testing.

Savinho is another first-team name present at the club’s training base, having returned from his holidays in Brazil to be formally unveiled to Manchester City supporters at an exclusive event outside the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

All players could yet play a role in the club’s opening competitive game of the new season, depending on Pep Guardiola’s thinking and thought process regarding their own readiness this week.