Brazilian star Gabriel Jesus has dropped some secrets about his former boss Pep Guardiola and revealed a series of unfavourable treatments he received from him leading to his exit from Manchester City.
Jesus, who currently works for Arsenal, spent five years playing as a striker and winning numerous titles while working under Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium. Jesus had a great first season under Mikel Arteta after joining the Gunners, contributing to 17 goals in the Premier League despite suffering injuries during the 2022 World Cup.
His most recent admission, however, indicates that he did not depart from Manchester City amicably and instead had to run to find freedom. He claims that it all started when Guardiola didn’t start him in an important Champions League game.
“There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put [Oleksandr] Zinchenko as a false 9. Crazy thing,” Jesus said. “The day before, he didn’t even use him [Zinchenko] in training, he had put me in as a striker… Zinchenko even joked with me: ‘That day I felt bad for you,” he said on the Denilson show” podcast
“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 him [Zinchenko] on, and he didn’t put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy.”
In the second half, Jesus came on to replace Zinchenko and set up the equaliser before scoring a late goal to give City a 2-1 victory.
“I didn’t warm up,” Jesus added. “I felt bad. Five minutes after [Kylian] Mbappe scored the goal for 1-0, he [Guardiola] called me. I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next [Champions League] game [a 2-1 win at RB Leipzig], I thought I was going to play, and I didn’t play.
“There was a lot of that with him [Guardiola], and it’s not easy. But one [player] evolves. It is really hard. That’s when I decided, I didn’t want to stay anymore. And I decided to leave.”
Gabriel Jesus bio
Gabriel Jesus is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Arsenal and the Brazil national team.
Jesus started his senior club career at Palmeiras, where he won the Copa do Brasil and was named Best Newcomer at the 2015 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. He received the Bola de Ouro in 2016, assisting Palmeiras in capturing their first national league championship in 22 years.
Jesus moved to Manchester City in January 2017 for a reported £27 million transfer fee. Since then, he has won four Premier League championships, three EFL Cups, and the FA Cup. He moved to Arsenal in July 2022 as part of a £45 million transfer.
Jesus made his senior debut for Brazil in September 2016 after earning 21 caps and tallying 7 goals at the youth level, including making it to the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup final and taking home an Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He was a member of the team that competed in the FIFA World Cup in 2018 and 2022 as well as the Copa América in 2019 and 2021, where he won the first competition.
