"Chiefs are worthy winners of the trophy," said City coach Mark Hughes afterwards. "But for us, it's been a fantastic experience being in South Africa and we've really enjoyed our time. We feel as though we've made a lot of friends here, we've really enjoyed every aspect of life here, it's been very rewarding and we hope to come back soon," the BBC quoted him.

City's three-match tour incorporated two defeats, against Chiefs and an opening 2-0 loss to Orlando Pirates, as well as Tuesday's sole victory against Chiefs in Durban. While City are by no means the most popular English club in South Africa, local fans still turned out in force to watch the games, even if there were empty seats at Durban's Absa Stadium and Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld (both of which seat over 52,000).

"Prior to the big signings, City were just another Premier League team - pretty much a no-name brand," local journalist Billy Cooper told BBC Sport. "There are simply no way as many City fans here as there are Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal. When United came out last year, Chiefs fans were outnumbered by United fans for the first time in living memory."

And unlike the Confederations Cup, when many South African fans held up placards supporting Liverpool's Fernando Torres, there were few to be seen for City in South Africa - save for one raised by local Chelsea fans reading 'John Terry is not for sale'.
Nonetheless, the tour has certainly raised the profile of Manchester City, who executive chairman Garry Cook hopes to turn into the 'darling of world football'.

"I like Man City, especially with the big-name players they've signed, so everyone is looking forward to the season to see how they are going to perform," said one young South African.

Although many locals dismiss City as a 'small club', Hachim, 25, is more positive.
"Even though Man City is new to us and must do a lot to catch up since Manchester United and Liverpool are the popular teams here, they can become more popular. "When I look at the calibre of players they have bought, I definitely think they are going somewhere."