It’s often revealing to hear footballers talk about their teammates. When so much time is spent training, competing and living in such close proximity, very little remains hidden. So when a footballer presents an honest view of a teammate, you get a unique assessment which contributes to a better understanding of the player.
Manchester City defender Kyle Walker recently offered an insight into how he and the team view their captain Ilkay Gundogan. “I’ve been joking with Gundo that he turns into prime Zidane in the last few months [of a season],” Walker said before City’s demolition of Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinal. “Sometimes you have to shine, and he does it at the business end of the season. That’s just what these players do — they’re born winners.”
Zinedine Zidane had a reputation for producing moments of game-winning magic on the big stage. So when Walker draws a parallel with the iconic World Cup-winning French midfielder, it tells you just how highly the City players regard Gundogan, who has made a habit of turning up under pressure when his side most desperately needs him.
The 32-year-old German’s most recent domination of a big game came last Saturday in the FA Cup final against cross-town rival Manchester United. The fans had barely settled down in their seats at a sun-soaked Wembley Stadium when a beautiful long volley from Gundogan ended up at the back of the net — the fastest goal ever scored in FA Cup final history, timed at 12.91 seconds according to the BBC. “The ball just was placed amazingly for me and I just had to hit it,” he said. “Obviously it was quite a good strike and it went in and it was amazing.”
After United drew level with a controversially awarded penalty, Gundogan scored the match-winner: a scuffed volley, in contrast to his sublime first strike, off his weaker left foot, which sneaked through a forest of players in the box.
Finding a way
The untidy nature of the goal showed that Gundogan often finds a way, by any means necessary. He delivered again, like he has for much of the final weeks of this Premier League season as City overtook Arsenal, which had led the table for 248 days. He did the same thing last season, when scoring two late goals in the final game to clinch the Premier League.
Indeed, this has been a recurring theme for much of Gundogan’s time, when injury-free, at City, having joined as Pep Guardiola’s first signing in 2016.
And now, captain and coach have the opportunity to make history. The FA Cup result left City one win away from completing a much sought-after treble, with the Premier League victors set to face Inter Milan in Saturday night’s Champions League final. Guardiola has already joined Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson as the only managers to win the English double more than once. If City wins a maiden European crown, it will match United’s 1998-99 treble.
How the achievement will be judged, both in the present and by sports historians, remains unclear, though. The nature of City’s functioning since the 2008 takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group has often raised questions — in February, City was charged with 115 breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules from 2009 to 2018 and also accused of not cooperating with the investigation. It isn’t known how long this process will take, but at least until then, the allegations of ‘financial doping’ will hover over City’s success.
Gundogan knows that these are matters beyond his control. What he can control is his performance in one of the biggest games of his career. He has finished on the wrong end of two Champions League finals. He scored a penalty in Borussia Dortmund’s 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the 2013 final and played the entirety of the 2021 final, which City lost 1-0 to Chelsea.
Gundogan, born to Turkish parents in Germany, will hope that Istanbul offers him the opportunity to finally taste glory in a big European final. “Obviously we are playing finals to win them,” he said. “Getting to the final for the second time in three years [with City], it’s already a great achievement, and I feel that now we have to do it. And this is the target.”
Farewell?
Saturday’s game could also be Gundogan’s last in City colours. The 32-year-old’s contract expires at the end of the month. A one-year extension is on the table, but he wants a two-year deal, reportedly for some longer-term security for his family. Barcelona, Arsenal and AC Milan, according to reports, are willing to offer the contract-length he seeks — and after seven seasons in Manchester, he is tempted by the change of scene and lifestyle offered by Barcelona.
Guardiola clearly wants to keep Gundogan and hopes an agreement can be reached. They are good friends — they live next door to each other in an apartment block in Manchester — and have the same footballing vision. “He knows what I think of him,” Guardiola said. “[City sporting director] Txiki [Begiristain] is working [on the extension].”
Gundogan, moreover, is perhaps the player who best epitomises the Guardiola era at City, having essayed a wide range of roles within the tactician’s ever-evolving conception of the game. Guardiola has played the German as a holding midfielder, a box-to-box central midfielder, an interior, a second striker and a false nine. “When he first arrived in Manchester the skills were there. But he has a special mentality,” the City manager said of Gundogan. “He plays the big games like they are friendlies. He can cope with the pressure.”
Gundogan has been non-committal when asked about his future, but if the Champions League final is to be his last game then he is desperate to summon his big-game mastery one final time for The Citizens and go out as a treble winner. “We have a chance to do something special and we do not want to let this opportunity pass us by,” he said. “I can promise our fans we will do everything we can to win in Istanbul.”
