After a year at FC Barcelona, Ilkay Gündogan (33 years old) returned to Manchester City this summer. But he does not regret his time in Catalonia, he who defended his record in the columns of Daily Mail. “I had a great time there. I played for one of the greatest teams in the world. I fulfilled one of my childhood dreams: to play for Barça and defend that badge. Maybe people look at last season and think we didn’t win anything, that’s true, but if you look at our performance, at the end of the season we had 85 points… only three less than the year before, when we won La Liga. We faced a very strong Real Madrid (…) I feel privileged to have played for Barcelona. In other circumstances, things might have been different. It was a difficult experience, but also fantastic. So I don’t regret anything.”
Then, the former BVB player spoke about the behind the scenes of his return to the Mancunians. “When I was sure it would be possible to come back, I spoke to Pep (Guardiola). I called him and asked him if he would imagine it. It was something I wanted to do personally and I didn’t have much to lose. I was a little nervous at first, but it was a good decision. Obviously, my relationship with Pep (Guardiola) has always been good. Although I was in Barcelona last year, we exchanged a few calls. In fact, we also met there once. There’s no reason to hide that we have a good connection, but in the end, you never know how people are going to react or what they think about certain situations. When I spoke about it and got a great response, I was relieved. It was something I maybe didn’t expect at that time. He told me that if it had been up to him, it would have been done the next day.” “Gundo” was therefore able to return home to City.
