Fresh of capturing his first UEFA Champions League title of his career, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola has further cemented his status as one of the game’s best managers. But according to one former player, it was a decision from Guardiola that brought him to tears that led to his eventual departure from the club.
Gabriel Jesus, who played for Manchester City from 2017 to ’22, said in an interview with the Denilson Show on Wednesday that Guardiola’s choice to leave Jesus out of the starting lineup for a Champions League match in ’21 against Paris Saint-Germain made him cry, and ultimately left Jesus resolved to find a new team.
“There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put [Oleksandr] Zinchenko as a false 9. Crazy thing,” Jesus said, per ESPN’s Adriana Garcia. “The day before, he didn’t even use [Zinchenko] in training, he had put me in as a striker. … Zinchenko even joked with me: ‘that day I felt bad for you.’”
