For Manchester City F.C., this year’s FIFA Club World Cup in the United States isn’t an introduction to the host nation, but a reminder of why it’s invested so many resources and match minutes here.

City is the reigning FIFA Club World Cup champion and the last from before the tournament’s format expanded from seven to 32 teams from around the world. The team comes into this Club World Cup having won the English Premier League in seven of the last 12 years, winning both a UEFA Champions League and Super Cup title during that time, and currently holding the FA Community Shield.

Manchester City’s U.S. Club World Cup kicks off Wednesday against the Moroccan Botolo Pro league’s Wydad AC at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. It then takes on Al Ain FC of the UAE Pro League on June 22 in Atlanta, and the team wraps up the group stage against Italy’s Serie A powerhouse Juventus on June 26 in Orlando. City not only has a history playing in each city, but has supporters’ groups in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Orlando.

“We’ve been present in the U.S. for many years, but this is actually going to be the first time we, as Manchester City, play a truly competitive tournament in this market,” said Nuria Tarre, CMO of City Football Group. “This is our No. 1 priority market outside of the U.K., so we’re taking this competition seriously, and we’re bringing the best team to play—we’ve just finished some very strong signings, and we’re bringing Erling Haaland and Rodri, who just won the Ballon D’or—so from a football talent point of view, we’re bringing a very strong team.”

According to the latest figures from Horizm, Manchester City has gathered nearly 164 million followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Among teams in the Club World Cup, it ranks fourth behind only Juventus (164.37 million), French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain (181.43 million), and iconic Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid (420.8 million). City is heavily engaged globally, but it’s looking to make a greater impression in the U.S., even after the Club World Cup.

As the Club World Cup gives way to the North American FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada in 2026, and then to the following Major League Soccer season in 2027—when City Football Group plans to open its new Etihad Park for New York City FC in Queens—Manchester City hopes to capture some of the momentum behind soccer’s growth and turn it into U.S. support.

“It puts us into a position of respect towards our fans, that we want to use this opportunity to engage even more with them,” Tarre said. “It feels like it’s all a cadence of things that are just building on higher interest, higher focus on this game, and a higher presence of this game in this market.”

Manchester City has had a dedicated marketing and commercial team in the United States for nearly a decade, and has been growing its presence in recent years. It has a branch of its City Studios production group, City Studios NYC, based in New York solely to create U.S.-specific content.

Tarre noted that City Studios NYC will be especially relevant during the Club World Cup as Manchester City attempts to identify stories domestically and speak to fans on both global and U.S. channels. It also aims to attract new generations of U.S. fans, implementing a marketing and content strategy beyond sports that works on crossovers in fashion, music, and technology, recently working with partners in Tribeca to get Manchester City alum Joleon Lescott cooking with Ana Sofia Fehn in front of a few influencers. 

@premierleagueusa That Aguero goal still gives @Ana Sofia Fehn goosebumps. 🩵 #PremierLeague #pl #rodri #agruero #manchestercity #mancity @Richard Blais ♬ original sound – Premier League U.S.

“We’ve developed lots of relationships over time in that space that make us relevant and maybe puts us into a better position, that we have more contacts. But it’s not a one-off thing. It’s just a continuation of what we’ve been doing over the past years,” Tarre said. “This is how you create … you try to operate in a space that is different than just playing the game.”

City is throwing fan parties in all three of its Club World Cup match locations and partnering with Puma and Asahi to bring in former players Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joleon Lescott for question-and-answer sessions. In Atlanta, Etihad Airways and Experience Abu Dhabi bring back Lescott and Wright-Phillips for a Fan Zone that also features live DJs, skills competitions, an EA gaming station, and a Puma interactive bus—all to celebrate a new Etihad direct flight from Atlanta to Abu Dhabi.

@mancity SUPER CITY 🩵 Play the beautiful game with our @@PUMA x @KidSuper ♬ original sound – Manchester City

Puma, meanwhile, teamed up with New York-based designer KidSuper on a special-edition collection that includes a jersey made just for the tournament. Taking the two-tone black-and-red sash the team has worn intermittently since the 1970s and Wright-Phillips wore as recently as 2009/10, KidSuper hand-painted the white base with graphics of fans doing their shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-the-pitch, arms-locked, bouncing Poznań celebration. 

The jersey is accompanied by a neon-sun goalkeeper jersey, a reversible jacket, track pants, a retro long-sleeve jersey, and a T-shirt in blue or cream. 

“Ours is actually a real, authentic story that will bring the history of our fans to U.S. fans as well,” Tarre said. “This represents the Poznan, which is a way our fans celebrate good moments in the stadium, so that creates conversation, and we also think it’s culturally relevant [in] trying to engage current fans, but hopefully getting the interest of new audiences as well that have been less connected to Man City in the past.”

From City Football Group’s point of view, the U.S. marketing strategy is working. Manchester City went into a friendly match against Mexico’s Club America in Houston in 2022 expecting a crowd tilted heavily in favor of its opponent, but was surprised to see half of NRG Stadium dressed in City’s trademark sky blue for its 2-1 win.

It’s built a presence in U.S. youth soccer culture, throwing its brand behind tournaments like the San Diego Cup and summer camps in Atlanta, Dallas, D.C., Boston, Providence, Connecticut—not including a camp it co-hosts with NYCFC in New York—that train both kids and coaches. With Roblox studio Gamefam and FIFA bringing the Club World Cup into its Super League Soccer game, Manchester City will be among the first of the tournament’s teams to digitally take the pitch. 

City Football Group

Should Manchester City win its group, it would move on to Orlando for the next round. Should it place second in the group, it would play in Miami—where it not only has a supporters group, but held its Club World Cup training sessions. With the semifinals and finals slated for Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.,—just a few rivers away from NYCFC’s future home in Flushing Meadows—Tarre said City Football Group is still more focused on Etihad Park’s 2027 opening, but is walking a fine line of making Club World Cup plans in the area without spoiling its hopes for a deep tournament run.

“I always need to plan to win, because otherwise I’m not doing my job,” Tarre said. “I can’t be improvising these things, so of course we will be focusing very much on trying to engage with fans as much as we can in every market we are in.”