Gabriel Jesus admits he was left in tears and told his mother he wanted to quit Manchester City after Pep Guardiola picked Oleksandr Zinchenko ahead of him.
The Brazilian has since left the Etihad and joined Arsenal, who finished second to his former side last term. Jesus spent six years at City, but was in and out of the starting XI, often playing second fiddle to Sergio Aguero who continued to command the No 9 spot.
Jesus’ emotions peaked one European night against fellow heavyweights PSG when he was overlooked. Had it been for a fellow attacker he may have been able to stomach it, but Guardiola made the unconventional decision to play Zinchenko, normally a defender, in an attacking role despite there being no indication of the tactical tweak.
The Brazilian told the Denilson Show podcast : “There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home in which he put Zinchenko as a false 9. Crazy thing. The day before, he didn’t even use him in training, he had put me in as a striker.. Zinchenko even joked with me: ‘That day I felt bad or you’.
“Two hours before the game, there’s a team talk, the team eats, rests for 30 minutes and goes to the game… I didn’t even eat. I went straight to the room, crying, I called my mother to talk: ‘I want to leave’. I’m going home, because he put (Zinchenko) on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy.”
Jesus would end up coming on to score the winner for City, who had gone 1-0 down to a Kylian Mbappe strike. Raheem Sterling equalised before the Brazilian’s effort 14 minutes from the end. The now Arsenal man admits he wasn’t even going to warm-up until Guardiola gave him the call.
Despite his heroics off the bench though Jesus was then snubbed for a later Champions League game, which he thought he would start, only adding to his desire to exit the Etihad and seek a new challenge.
He added “I didn’t warm up. I felt bad. Five minutes after Mbappe scored the goal for 1-0, [Guardiola] called me. I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next [Champions League] game [a 2-1 win at RB Leipzig], I thought I was going to play, and I didn’t play.
“There was a lot of that with him [Guardiola], and it’s not easy. But one [player] evolves. It is really hard. That’s when I decided, I didn’t want to stay anymore. And I decided to leave.”
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