by Ilkay Gundogan, who rejoined Pep Guardiola’s team on a free transfer after spending just one season at Barcelona, has officially signed with Manchester City. After leaving the Etihad Stadium in the summer of 2023, he moved to Spain in search of opportunities. However, he did not find the same ambitious environment as he had in England, and realizing that his income would decrease along with his prominence, which would be a setback for the board, he agreed to the same solution.
Now returning to Manchester City is Ilkay Gundogan. After just one season at Barcelona, the team where he played for the most of his career—seven seasons—has revealed that he will be returning as a free agent. Despite having a contract that expired on June 30, 2025, Hansi Flick informed him that he wouldn’t have a definite starting position, thus he gave his permission to leave the team.
It didn’t take the German long to arrange his exit with his agent since he didn’t want to accept the infamous cut in playing time that his employer had in mind and because he knew that his salary was a hindrance to the Azulgranas’ budget planning. His mentality was not helped by the environment at Barcelona, where he had already made a number of public remarks criticizing his teammates for what may have been a lack of motivation and self-criticism.
It is interesting from a sports standpoint that the former player for Borussia Dortmund has run out of room in a squad where he did log time on the field and play the same number of games as a “Sky Blue” with the same starting lineups as the season before. He was envisioned by Xavi Hernandez as an indelible part of his midfield framework, but his successor chooses younger options instead.
He will receive a warm welcome from Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. In his company, Gundogan took home the Premier League titles in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023, as well as the FA Cups in 2019 and 2023, the Community Shields in 2019 and 2020, the EFL Cups in 2018 and 2020, and the 2023 Champions League. Despite setting a record for assists (14) at Barcelona, he only took home one friendly title, the 2023 Joan Gamper.
