"Balotelli....AGUEROOOOOO!" Two words, two players, a historic moment in football. As Manchester City battled back from 2-1 down to beat QPR 3-2 on that balmy May 2012 afternoon, wrestling the title from rivals Manchester United at the death of the season, Martin Tyler's iconic commentary is as famous as Sergio Aguero's winning goal.
While his other 180 didn't carry the same importance as that one at the end of his debut season with City, Aguero's prolificacy helped propel the side to the next level of domestic football. It was the first of four Premier League titles City have won and they are edging closer to their fifth, one that the Argentine is, sadly, playing a cameo role in.
Aguero has made just eight league appearances for City this season, starting four times, and his one goal in 2020/21 came from the spot in a 3-0 win over Fulham. Injuries have restricted the striker to a bit-part role in City's unstoppable push for domestic glory and with his contract expiring in the summer, the club on Monday announced he would depart at the end of the campaign.
🇦🇷 Sergio Aguero has scored more goals than any foreign player in Premier League history and is fourth on the all-time list
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) March 29, 2021
😞 Manchester City have confirmed Aguero will leave the club when his contract expires this summer pic.twitter.com/syuI1bcX2N
Of course, he'll go down a City legend and understandably so. At the time of writing, he has scored 257 competitive goals for the club, more than any other City player in their history. 181 Premier League goals is more than any other overseas player since its inception in 1992, and fourth overall.
"It gives me great pleasure to announce that we will be commissioning an artist to create a statue of Sergio to live at the Etihad Stadium alongside the ones under construction for Vincent [Kompany] and David [Silva]," City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak announced on Monday as they plan to immortalise one of the finest frontmen in Premier League history.
However, it could have been so much more for Aguero. Since his arrival from Atletico Madrid in 2011, the 32-year-old has featured in 271 of a possible 372 league games (72.8%). Injuries mean he started 25 or fewer league games in six of his 10 Premier League seasons with City, thus robbing him of the chance to further nail down his legacy as of the competition's most prolific hitmen.
Nevertheless, Aguero still averaged an impressive 0.67 league goals per game, that a shade fewer than Harry Kane (0.68) and better than the Premier League's record scorer Alan Shearer (0.59). Of those to make 50 or more Premier League appearances since the start of the 2009/10 season, Aguero's record of a goal every 108.3 minutes is the best, with Kane (122.4) closest to matching him. Knee injuries and a series of muscular injuries robbed the Argentina striker with the chance to move closer to the latter's record and with each passing spell on the sidelines, Aguero's burst of pace began to desert him, thus losing one of his key weapons to his arsenal in the final third.
For a high pressing side of City's ilk, this also their impacted their game in attack. Aguero tried as he did to adjust to the rigorous demands of head Pep Guardiola, but his body ultimately let him down. This, though, shouldn't be held against him when discussing the Premier League's best ever players.
During his 10-season spell with Manchester City, the likes of Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard, Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah have all graced the Premier League, and that's not including City stars Yaya Toure, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, three emblematic players who each played a vital part in the Manchester side's rise to prominence.
And yet Aguero will forever be remembered as one of the best to ever grace the Premier League. Some hold the opinion that he is the best to play in the league, others will insist he is sat behind Thierry Henry for that accolade, but that he is discussed in the same breath as the Frenchman highlights Aguero's impact and quality following his arrival from Atletico Madrid.
The rumours over his future start now as Aguero is yet to reveal what he plans to do next in his career. Moves to Barcelona and Inter have been mooted, so too has a return to Argentina, and a switch to Independiente to complete the cycle. No matter what is in store for the striker, his is a book glittered with fond memories of a wonderful spell with City, and with the potential for one final Champions League chapter to be written before he departs the Etihad Stadium for good.
It will be a shame to see the back of one of the Premier League's most feared frontmen, but he'll be leaving a City legend and an icon of the English game.
