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.’”
Jesus eventually was subbed on for Zinchenko in the second half, notching an assist and scoring the game-winning goal in what became a 2-1 victory. But he said the sting of being left off the team left him in a state of distress.
“Two hours before the game, there’s a team talk, the team eats, rests for 30 minutes and goes to the game. He told us the team, I didn’t even eat. I went straight to the room, crying, I called my mother to talk: ‘I want to leave,’” Jesus said. “I’m going home, because he put [Zinchenko] on, and he didn’t put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy.”
Jesus battled through injury in his debut season with Arsenal, finishing the Premier League campaign with 11 goals in 26 games. The Gunners finished the year as league runner-ups to City, who won the title for the fifth time in six years.
