-
Gabriel Jesus reveals the moment he decided to leave Man City.
Gabriel Jesus has stated that a snub by Pep Guardiola for a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain that left him ‘mad’ and in tears was the moment he decided he wanted to leave the club, going on to join Arsenal seven months later in a £45m transfer.
In November 2021, PSG travelled to the Etihad Stadium for a group stage match with Jesus anticipating to start after being utilized as the primary striker in practice the day before. Guardiola ultimately decided to use Oleksandr Zinchenko as a false nine, though.
The City manager has developed a reputation for employing seemingly odd tactical decisions in an effort to outwit his rival. Jesus was particularly hurt by that one.
“There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put Zinchenko as a false nine. Crazy thing,” Jesus explained during an appearance on The Denilson Show.
“The day before, he didn’t even use [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 [Zinchenko] on, and he didn’t put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy.”
Jesus also claimed that he didn’t even warm up, but he was quickly called upon after Kylian Mbappe gave PSG the lead just after halftime. Within minutes of entering the game, the Brazilian had assisted Raheem Sterling’s equalizer and then scored the game-winning goal himself.
“I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next [Champions League] game [against RB Leipzig] , I thought I was going to play, and I didn’t play. There was a lot of that with [Guardiola], and it’s not easy. It’s really hard. That’s when I decided to leave…I didn’t want to stay anymore.”