Barcelona’s Ilkay Gündogan to return to Manchester City on free transfer | Manchester City

Ilkay Gündogan will return to ­Manchester Metropolis on a free switch, 12 months after leaving the membership for Barcelona. The 33-year-old, captain when Metropolis received the treble in 2023, will be part of on an preliminary one-year cope with an choice for a second.

Having come to see that Barcelona didn’t need him to proceed on the Camp Nou, Gündogan instigated contact with Pep Guardiola, whom he performed underneath for seven years at Metropolis, and the premise of an settlement was reached swiftly. Gündogan has waived the remaining two years of his wage in Catalonia. The deal is predicted to be formally accomplished within the coming hours.

Barcelona have a surplus of gamers within the No 10 place, with Dani Olmo arriving to hitch Pedri, Fermín López and Pablo Torre, and with Gündogan not assured a beginning place this season by the brand new head coach, Hansi Flick, his exit has extra of an financial clarification than a footballing one.

Signed by the previous sporting director Jordi Cruyff with the backing of the then-coach Xavi Hernández, Gündogan joined Barcelona in June 2023 on a free switch, saying: “It was my childhood dream.” In his debut season he performed extra video games and extra minutes than anybody else within the squad, scoring 5 objectives and offering 14 assists in all competitions.

Barcelona didn’t immediately inform Gündogan, who introduced his ­retirement from worldwide ­soccer this week having captained Germany to the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, that they needed him to depart. The present sporting director, Deco, didn’t inform him to discover a membership and nor did Flick say that he wouldn’t play.

Nonetheless, given the monetary difficulties on the membership, basically everybody besides Lamine Yamal is on the market. The place different gamers, comparable to Frenkie de Jong and Raphinha, have resisted the stress and refused to maneuver, Gündogan knowledgeable Barcelona that he would settle for a departure if the transfer was proper. He made contact with Metropolis final week.

Gündogan was Barcelona’s third highest earner after Robert Lewandowski and De Jong, on somewhat underneath €20m (£17m) a yr. His contract initially ran till 2025 however an automated one yr extension had been triggered after he performed greater than 60% of their video games final season. He has agreed to not be paid for both of his remaining seasons, saving Barça €40m (£34m).

Gündogan joined the membership in June 2016, changing into Guardiola’s first signing as Metropolis supervisor, and proved an enormous success throughout his time there, profitable 5 Premier League titles, two FA Cups, 4 League Cups and the Champions League.