Played for both: Manchester United and Manchester City
The ten players in Goaler's data with league games for both Manchester clubs, from Billy Meredith in the 1890s to Owen Hargreaves, and why nearly all of them went from United to City.
For two clubs that share a name, Manchester United and Manchester City have exchanged very few players. Goaler's football data holds ten men with league games for both, using the rule that decides a Tic-Tac-Toe answer: one senior appearance is enough, and a loan counts. The same rule finds 23 players for Barcelona and Real Madrid. The Manchester ten stretch from 1894, when Billy Meredith's City career began, to 2012, when Owen Hargreaves's season at City ended. Years below are those of each player's English Wikipedia infobox, and games and goals are the league figures it lists.
Almost all one way
Eight of the ten played for United first. Only Meredith and Denis Law began at City, and both of them ended their careers back there. In Goaler's data, every crossing since 1962 has gone from United to City: nine moves, from Law's own return in 1973 to Hargreaves's in 2011. Outside it, Wyn Davies went straight from City to United in 1972, and Peter Barnes went from United back to City in 1987. Of the twelve crossings in the data, five were direct, with no other club in between.
Meredith and Law
Billy Meredith, a Welsh winger born in 1874, has more league games for the two clubs than anyone else on the list: 669. His infobox gives him 338 games and 147 goals for City between 1894 and 1906. He moved straight to United that year and played 303 games for them, scoring 35, before going straight back to City in 1921 for 28 more. His 366 league games for City are more than three times the next-highest total on the list, Carlos Tevez's 113.
Denis Law took the long way the first time. The Scot joined City from Huddersfield Town in 1960, scored 21 goals in 44 league games, spent 1961–62 at Torino and arrived at United in 1962. Between then and 1973 he scored 171 league goals in 309 games, more than anyone on the list has scored for either club. He then went directly back to City and added nine goals in 24 games in 1973–74, which takes his total for the two clubs to 201, also the highest of the ten.
From United, eventually
Six of the United players reached City only after at least one other club. Brian Kidd scored 52 league goals in 203 games for United from 1967 to 1974, went to Arsenal, and scored 44 in 98 games for City from 1976. Sammy McIlroy has the most United league games on the list, 342 between 1971 and 1982; after Stoke City he played 13 for City in 1985–86.
Peter Schmeichel kept goal in 292 league games for United from 1991 to 1999, then went to Sporting CP and Aston Villa before a final season at City, 29 games in 2002–03. Andy Cole, one of the Premier League's 100-goal scorers with 187, scored 93 league goals in 195 games for United between 1995 and 2001; after Blackburn Rovers and Fulham he scored nine in 22 games for City in 2005–06.
Two of the six reached City only on loan. Andrei Kanchelskis played 123 league games for United between 1991 and 1995 and ten for City in 2001, on loan from Rangers. Mark Robins scored 11 league goals in 48 games for United from 1988 to 1992 and played twice for City on loan in 1999, after Norwich City, Leicester City, Ourense and Panionios. With pages on 20 Wikipedia language editions, Robins is close to the cut for Goaler's data.
The quick ones
In our data, only Tevez (2009) and Hargreaves (2011) have gone straight from United to City since Law. Carlos Tevez spent two seasons on loan at United, scoring 19 league goals in 63 games, and went straight to City when the loan ended in 2009. He scored 58 in 113 league games there by 2013. Owen Hargreaves joined United from Bayern Munich in 2007, played 27 league games there by 2011 and then moved to City, where his infobox lists a single league game.
| Player | Country | Manchester United | Manchester City | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billy Meredith | Wales | 1906–1921 (303 games, 35 goals) | 1894–1906, 1921–1924 (366 games, 148 goals) | City, United, City |
| Denis Law | Scotland | 1962–1973 (309 games, 171 goals) | 1960–1961, 1973–1974 (68 games, 30 goals) | City, United, City |
| Brian Kidd | England | 1967–1974 (203 games, 52 goals) | 1976–1979 (98 games, 44 goals) | United, City |
| Sammy McIlroy | Northern Ireland | 1971–1982 (342 games, 57 goals) | 1985–1986 (13 games, 1 goal) | United, City |
| Mark Robins | England | 1988–1992 (48 games, 11 goals) | 1999 loan (2 games, 0 goals) | United, City |
| Andrei Kanchelskis | Russia | 1991–1995 (123 games, 28 goals) | 2001 loan (10 games, 0 goals) | United, City |
| Peter Schmeichel | Denmark | 1991–1999 (292 games, 0 goals) | 2002–2003 (29 games, 0 goals) | United, City |
| Andy Cole | England | 1995–2001 (195 games, 93 goals) | 2005–2006 (22 games, 9 goals) | United, City |
| Carlos Tevez | Argentina | 2007–2009 loan (63 games, 19 goals) | 2009–2013 (113 games, 58 goals) | United, City |
| Owen Hargreaves | England | 2007–2011 (27 games, 2 goals) | 2011–2012 (1 game, 0 goals) | United, City |
What the count leaves out
Ten is a floor. Goaler's data takes only players with articles on at least 20 language editions of Wikipedia, and four of the ten are close to that line: Robins (20), McIlroy (24), Kidd (27) and Meredith (29). A player who crossed between the clubs but has fewer pages than that would not appear here. Wyn Davies and Peter Barnes, whose moves are above, played for both clubs and are not in the data, and there may be others.
Two players in the data have both clubs on their record and still do not count. Peter Beardsley's infobox lists United in 1982–83 with no league game, though he played six for City on loan in 1998; Frédéric Veseli is listed at both clubs with no league game for either. Neither would be accepted in a Tic-Tac-Toe cell for United and City. Where Wikidata and the infobox disagree, the table follows the infobox.
On a board, that makes a United–City cell one to plan for. The ten names above are where the answers are, and McIlroy or Robins, with far fewer Wikipedia pages than Tevez or Schmeichel, should earn more rarity points than either.
Facts from Goaler's football data, built from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikidata (CC0). Text written for Goaler.