Most Manchester City fans may have never heard of Michaël Cuisance, but he did live a situation that most players can only dream of.
The 24-year-old now plays for VfL Osnabruck, on loan from Venezia, but the fact is that he could have signed for the Etihad based club.
He told that story to So Foot, claiming that Pep Guardiola tried to take him to the Premier League side six years ago.
Cuisance gave many details of how he turned Manchester City down, and what a difficult decision that was.
“I met Pep Guardiola before signing for Gladbach in 2017. He followed me and wanted me to sign for Manchester City. And having Guardiola in front of you, in his office, it’s impressive. I finally chose Germany to have a better chance of starting professionally and also because of its proximity to Alsace.
“I immediately put myself in the conditions of a human-to-human discussion, precisely to avoid having this star/fan relationship. I admired him, but I wanted to stay serious.”
“The fact of refusing Manchester City was not just up to me. It was a choice in consultation with my family. We favoured proximity to the house, to avoid too great a distance, given that I was still a minor.”
“I’m not sure Pep knows who I am yet, since he has other concerns. (Laughs.) But he’ll know again when I’m back on top. I’m convinced of it.”
Following that transfer to Borussia Monchengladbach, Cuisance was sold to Bayern Munich for €8m in 2018, but had few chances to play for the Bundesliga giants.
The midfielder then had a loan at Olympique Marseille, before ending up being sold to Venezia, who loaned him to Sampdoria and now to VfL Osnabruck.
That’s undoubtedly a curious career for the Frenchman. Even though he may now imagine how his time at Manchester City could have been, he was undoubtedly brave to turn down that opportunity at such a young age.
