John Stones has confirmed he will leave Manchester City when his contract expires at the end of the 2025/26 season, bringing to a close a ten-year association with the club that began when Pep Guardiola arrived in Manchester and identified the then-22-year-old Everton centre-back as one of the foundational signings of his project at the Etihad.
In an emotional video posted on social media, Stones said: “It has been my home for the past 10 years, and it will be my home for the rest of my life. It’s been a rollercoaster in many ways. I came as a kid, and I’m now leaving as a man, becoming a father, a husband and, on the pitch, a very fulfilled player, I suppose, in living all my dreams out and lifting all the things that I came here to lift.”
The announcement makes Stones the second long-serving club legend to confirm a summer departure following the earlier exit confirmation of captain Bernardo Silva, and gives City a summer of substantial squad reconstruction to navigate on top of whatever challenge remains in the Premier League title race and the FA Cup final.
City paid £47.5 million to bring Stones from Everton in 2016, at the time making him the second most expensive defender in the history of English football and the first major statement of Guardiola’s vision for a City defence built on ball-playing centre-backs comfortable operating as a fourth midfielder when the team has possession.
His contribution to the most successful era in City’s history is genuinely difficult to quantify simply through trophies, six Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, and five League Cups among them, because his positional intelligence and composure with the ball fundamentally changed how the club’s back four functioned across a decade.
The injury problems that have dogged his final two seasons restricted him to just 16 appearances across all competitions this campaign, leaving Guardiola the difficult task of deciding when to play the man he clearly regards with exceptional affection despite his obvious physical fragility, which made a contract renewal always feel unlikely.
Guardiola made his feelings about Stones completely clear when selecting the defender as captain for the FA Cup semi-final victory over Southampton, explaining to TNT Sports his reasoning: “Finally, he has had three weeks or a month without injuries. Unfortunately, he had a lot in these last two seasons. He was our first signing when I arrived here. Difficult to understand the big success that we had without him, on and off the pitch. He is just adorable and a top player.”
Of Guardiola, Stones said in his farewell message: “I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as successful if it wasn’t for him. I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to spend so long with him, win everything with him and share and have so many incredible moments together.”
As a free agent, Stones immediately becomes one of the most sought-after defenders available this summer, with Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and an emotional return to Everton all discussed as plausible destinations, though the chronic injury concerns of his recent years will be a significant factor in any medical evaluation a buying club commissions before formalising an offer.
The club’s tribute on their official website described his contribution in terms that resisted hyperbole precisely because the facts alone are extraordinary enough: “The 31-year-old’s huge contribution across the most sustained and successful era in the Club’s history stands without question.”
