Premier League Superstar to Depart Club Along With Manager

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Premier League Superstar to Depart Club Along With Manager

Originally posted on Essential Football | By J Johnson | Last updated May 29, 2026 10:05 AM ET

Recently, Pep Guardiola announced his intentions to leave Manchester City at the end of the Premier League season, bringing his decade at the Etihad Stadium to a close.

Unsurprisingly, the metaphorical earthquake caused by Guardiola’s departure hasn’t been shy of aftershocks. Recently, according to a report from CaughtOffside, Portuguese international Ruben Dias has also expressed his desire to leave the Sky Blues for pastures new.

He has gone as far as to ‘intruct his agent’ to find his next club, indicating that he is dead-set on leaving. As one of the best defenders in the world, Dias will have no shortage of potential suitors.

Among those thought to be interested are PSG, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid – previously, Chelsea have also been linked with a move for the player, though it remains to be seen if their interest persists. Given the Blues’ current situation, having failed to qualify for Europe, they’re unlikely to be leading the pack in the race for Dias’ signature.

With all this having been said, City are under no pressure to let Dias go. He is under contract with them until the summer of 2029 – on top of this, he only signed his latest contract extension last year. As such, it will be difficuly for any club to strike a deal, especially with a club of City’s financial standing.

On top of this, he is also City’s captain – in a time of dressing room imbalance, they will not want to lose one of their key leaders on the pitch.

Ruben Dias 2025/26 Premier League stats

	Games	Goals	Assists	Yellow Cards	Red Cards
Ruben Dias	26	2	0	3	0

This past season hasn’t been Dias’ best, but he can’t really be blamed for it, having spent a sizeable portion of it on the sidelines with two seperate injuries.

Nevertheless, they have generally been fine in Dias’ absence. They only conceded an average of 0.9 goals per game in the 12 Premier League matches that Dias did not play in last season.

Following his arrival from Crystal Palace in the January transfer window, Marc Guehi has largely usurped Dias’ spot as City’s number one centre-back. The Citizens might want to keep him around for his leadership abilities, but from an on-field standpoint, letting him go might not be the crushing loss it would first appear to be.

Who could sign Ruben Dias in the summer transfer window?

We mentioned the clubs interested in Dias’ services earlier – all three of them are very enticing options. PSG certainly stand out from amongst the pack, as they would allow him to link up with a number of his international compatriots. Joao Neves, Nuno Mendes and Vitinha are all established superstars for the Ligue 1 champions as things stand.

However, PSG also have an established centre-back pairing – Willian Pacho and Marquinhos. Bayern’s isn’t quite as strong, but still incredibly solid.

This just leaves Real Madrid – Eder Militao and Antonio Rudiger are fine defenders, but Rudiger isn’t getting younger and Militao’s injury woes seem to worsen with age. On top of this, Dean Huijsen has been left out in the cold as of late – if we were Dias’ agent, that’s the direction we’d be looking to take him in.

This article first appeared on Essential Football and was syndicated with permission.

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