admin Gabriel Jesus has revealed a snub by Pep Guardiola for a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain that left him ‘crazy’ and in tears was the moment he knew he wanted to leave the club, going on to join Arsenal in a £45m transfer seven months later.
PSG travel to the Etihad Stadium for the group stage match in November 2021, and Jesus, who was named as the main striker in the previous day’s training, is expected to start. However, Guardiola eventually named Oleksandr Zinchenko as the False Nine.
City bosses have long had a reputation for making seemingly bizarre tactical decisions to outwit their opponents. This was especially painful for Jesus.
“It was home to PSG in the Champions League and he put Zinchenko on for the Forsnine.” “It’s crazy,” Jesus explained during an appearance on The Denilson Show.
“The day before he (Zinchenko) didn’t even use me for training, he used me as a striker. Zinchenko also joked to me, ‘I felt sorry for you that day.’ Two hours into the game. There is a team meeting before the team eats and rests for 30 minutes before going to the game. He talked about teams I hadn’t eaten yet. I immediately went to my room and cried. I called my mother and said, “I want to go.” He clothed [Zinchenko] and he goes home, but he didn’t clothe me. He hired a left-back there.
Jesus, who hadn’t even warmed up yet, admitted he was brought on right after Kylian Mbappe put PSG ahead just after half-time. Just minutes after coming on, the Brazilian set up Rahim Sterling’s equalizer before scoring the winning goal himself.
“I had an assist and a shot. We made it 2-1. [For Guardiola] there were a lot of things like that, but it’s not easy. It’s really hard. That’s when I decided to leave…I didn’t want to stay here anymore.
