Gabriel Jesus explains "crazy thing" Pep Guardiola did that made him cry and leave Man City
Brazilian ace Gabriel Jesus made the decision to swap serial winners Manchester City for Premier League runners-up Arsenal last summer - and the forward has now opened up about the reason
Gabriel Jesus has recalled Pep Guardiola making him cry as the moment he decided to leave Manchester City.
Jesus, 26, spent five-and-a-half seasons with City, joining several months after Guardiola’s own arrival. He won an impressive four Premier League titles while scoring 95 goals in 236 games in all competitions for the club.
Yet the Brazilian forward was often in and out of the Spaniard’s starting lineup and played out of position before making a £45 million switch to rivals Arsenal last summer, helping them to a second-placed finish behind his former side.
And Jesus has now revealed what pushed him to leave, citing Guardiola’s decision to play Oleksandr Zinchenko - a defender - ahead of him up-front in an important Champions League tie as the reason.
Speaking on Brazilian legend Denilson’s podcast, Jesus said: "There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put Zinchenko as a false 9. Crazy thing.
"The day before, he didn't even use him [Zinchenko] in training, he had put me in as a striker... Zinchenko even joked with me 'that day I felt bad for you'.
"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. I'm going home, because he put him [Zinchenko] on, and he didn't put me on. He put a left-back there.’ I went crazy.
"I didn't warm up. I felt bad. Five minutes after [Kylian] Mbappe scored the goal for 1-0, he [Guardiola] called me. I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next [Champions League] game, I thought I was going to play, and I didn't play."
"There was a lot of that with him [Guardiola], and it's not easy. But one [player] evolves. It is really hard. That's when I decided, I didn't want to stay anymore. And I decided to leave."
Jesus in contrast, has since gone on to say he feels "free" playing at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta - Guardiola’s former assistant coach at City.
“Arteta knows me, I know him, I understood what he wanted from me. Now, I'm free on the pitch, playing football with a smile on my face and trying to do my best all the time,” he said in September 2022.
He scored 11 goals and notched seven assists in his debut campaign for the Gunners despite suffering a serious injury that kept him out for several months.
City did not falter in his absence, however, signing Norwegian phenomenon Erling Haaland, who shattered the Premier League record for goals in a single season with 36 in his debut campaign.
The Citizens also managed to win their first ever Treble.
Okeke George Chijioke
When you don't see Okeke George blogging, he sure will engage him self in sporting activities.
