İlkay Gündoğan spent six years at Manchester City before leaving them as a free agent at the end of last season.
Pep Guardiola was keen on retaining the 32-year-old and the Citizens even handed him a new deal after he played a key role in helping them win the treble last season. Manchester City’s efforts weren’t successful as he joined Barcelona on a free transfer.
Sport on Friday have a report explaining the midfielder’s importance for the La Liga side and what happened behind the scenes in the summer.
The Germany international was a priority target for Xavi Hernández and it’s claimed the manager ‘moved heaven and earth’ to convince him to leave Manchester City.
Gündoğan has four assists from 10 games this season and taking his performances so far into account, the newspaper states the Catalan club have ‘gained a total midfielder’.
They further add Gündoğan’s technical quality is ‘undoubted’ as he is clearly ‘establishing himself as the conductor’ of the team.
At Manchester City, the former Borussia Dortmund star contributed even in attack and the report states he wants to repeat that at the Camp Nou as well.
To sum it up, both Xavi and his side are delighted that their decision to bet on the player has clearly paid off.
