Ilkay Gundogan ended his trophy-laden seven-year stick with Manchester City by agreeing to hitch Barcelona on a free switch on Monday.
The Germany midfielder’s final act as a City participant — and because the group’s captain — was to carry the Champions League trophy, which accomplished a treble of main titles for the English membership.
Now, he’s heading to Spain on a two-year contract for a brand new expertise, regardless that Pep Guardiola wished to maintain the 32-year-old Gundogan — the primary signing of the City supervisor’s period from 2016.
Having missed out on securing the return of Lionel Messi, Barcelona made the signing of Gundogan a precedence so as to add some expertise to a midfield already containing children Pedri González and Gavi PAez, two of its pillars going ahead, however now not together with veteran chief Sergi Busquets, who’s leaving the membership.
Frenkie de Jong additionally performed an vital function final season for Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez, regardless of efforts by the membership to promote him within the offseason of 2022.
Gundogan’s arrival comes whereas debt-ridden Barcelona remains to be struggling to fulfill the Spanish league’s monetary guidelines. Only lately was it capable of finding a solution to formally register Gavi as a first-team participant.
It is extensively anticipated that the membership might want to promote gamers to scale back its bills, and the addition of Gundogan will solely add to that burden except compensated by exits.
While Barcelona offered off a part of its future tv revenues and different belongings to have the money essential to signal Robert Lewandowski and different gamers final yr, its monetary issues have more and more compelled the membership to seek out free brokers who wish to come to Spain.
Last yr, the group picked up present gamers Andreas Christensen, Marcos Alonso and Franck Kessie on free transfers, whereas different free brokers like Memphis Depay have come and gone in recent times.
City was reportedly solely providing Gundogan a one-year deal, whereas he wished an extended contract for some safety for his household.
He will go down as a City nice, not only for being the group’s captain in its biggest ever season however due to a number of the essential targets he scored and performances he delivered within the midfield, the place he might play box-to-box, as an anchorman or — in his favored function — as a participant supporting the striker.
No targets have been extra vital than the 2 he scored to finish City’s late comeback from 2-0 right down to Aston Villa on the ultimate day of the 2021-22 season, successful the group one other league title.
After becoming a member of from Borussia Dortmund, the place he was a Bundesliga champion in 2012, Gundogan gained 5 Premier League titles, two FA Cups, 4 English League Cups and the Champions League with City.
He now arrives at a membership that gained the Spanish League title final season however failed for a second straight marketing campaign to maneuver previous the group section of the Champions League.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com