Why did Ilkay Gündogan reject a new Manchester City contract to sign for Barcelona?

Barcelona may have missed out on bringing Lionel Messi back to the club, the Argentine instead opting to move to MLS and Inter Miami, but they have still managed to make a big statement this summer by convincing Manchester City’s Champions League-winning captain Ilkay Gündogan to join them.

After it was confirmed that the German midfielder would be making the move to Catalonia, he himself wrote a piece in The Players Tribune, thanking the City and the club’s fans for their support over the years. “When I first arrived here, I was a young man with no kids and a lot of dreams. It’s hard for me to even believe, but I am leaving seven years later as a father who has fulfilled every single dream that he ever had”, Gündogan begins.

In his time at City, the midfielder won five Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four Leagues Cups and, most recently, the Champions League, which both the club and manager Pep Guardiola had been chasing from the moment the former Barcelona coach walked in the door.

Gündogan lavishes praise on Pep Guardiola

The former Borussia Dortmund star was Guardiola’s first signing in Manchester and the 32-year-old admits that stumping up the courage to tell his long-time boss he was leaving was no easy task.

“One of the hardest calls I had to make was to Pep, telling him that I was going to leave. All I could do was to say thank you. Not just for this season, or for all the trophies, but for bringing me here in the first place. I will never forget when I hurt my knee at the end of the season with Dortmund and I had to get surgery, I was so worried that City would pull out of the deal for me. But Pep called me on the phone and said, ‘Don’t worry, it doesn’t change anything. We want you here. We will wait for you no matter how long it takes.’”

“None of this would have been possible without Pep. There are times when he is so demanding of how we play and so intense that it can be a bit difficult, mentally. But once everyone gets on the same page and we are in harmony on the pitch, his system is so efficient that it almost feels effortless. I have always felt a close bond with Pep”.

“Barcelona or nothing”

Why, then, has Gündogan decided to walk out on the club – and manager – that made those dreams come true?

“If I was going to move, there is only one club in the world that made sense. It was Barcelona or nothing. Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamed of wearing that shirt some day. I am confident that I have a few more years left at the highest level, and I just want to help bring Barcelona back to where they deserve to be. It will be a reunion with my old friend Lewa, and I’m excited to play under another manager who I have admired for a long time. When Xavi and I talked about the project, it just seemed so natural. I see so many similarities between us as characters and in the way we see the game”.

Longer-term project and a new experience

“I have a few more years left at the highest level,” would appear to be one key phrase, in accordance with The Athletic, who claim that Manchester City offered Gündogan more money (€12 million/$13.1 million net per season) compared to Barcelona (just over €9 million/$9.82 million) but the LaLiga champions were prepared to offer a two-year deal with the option of a third as opposed to City’s one-year extension with the option of a second.

That longer-term security, along with, according to sources close to the player, “a desire, at the age of 32, to live a new experience” is what ultimately convinced Gündogan to swap England for Spain.