The record of João Cancelo (29 years old) with Manchester City (9 goals, 22 assists in 154 matches, all competitions) made him one of Pep Guardiola’s starters. In England, many were also pleased to have seen City get rid of the flop Danilo by simply exchanging him for the Portuguese in 2019. The departure of Cancelo in the middle of last season therefore surprised more than one. Why did Guardiola agree to loan one of his starters to Bayern Munich in January 2023? In the end, this did not prevent the Spaniard and his team from achieving the incredible Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup treble, but the reasons for the divorce between Cancelo and Guardiola remained unknown.
Since then, the Lusitanian full-back has spent a six-month loan at Bayern Munich (which did not wish to exercise the €70 million purchase option) before landing this season at FC Barcelona. This time, without a purchase option. Upon his arrival in Catalonia, Cancelo, however, gave a more than complimentary speech towards his former coach. “I have to thank everyone at City, I had the best moments of my career there. And it’s thanks to my teammates, to Pep Guardiola, to the technical staff, a very good and very united group. I have to thank everyone at City, I had the best moments of my career there. » Still linked to City until 2027, Cancelo now hopes that Barça (or another club) can recruit him permanently. Because Guardiola doesn’t want it at all.
A departure settled in 4 days
And for the first time, Catalunya Radio revealed the underside of the divorce between the two men. It all started on January 14, 2023, during the derby against Manchester United lost by the Skyblues (1-2). Guardiola would not have liked certain attitudes and would have decided to make several changes for the following match. One of the Catalan’s decisions was to remove Cancelo from the starting lineup and replace him with young Rico Lewis (18).
The following ? City won the next three matches without Cancelo. Annoyed at having been relegated to the sidelines, the Portuguese would then have had an attitude within the locker room which did not please Guardiola (during the FA Cup match against Arsenal on January 27). At the end of the match, Guardiola then went to see two of his managers, Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, to ask them to take Cancelo out of the locker room. Agent of the defender, Jorge Mendes then activated and four days later João Cancelo was loaned to Bayern Munich. Since then, FC Barcelona has not complained about this divorce. Quite the contrary (2 goals and 1 assist in 4 matches).
