Ilkay Gundogan ended his trophy-laden seven-year stick with Manchester Metropolis by agreeing to affix Barcelona on a free switch on Monday.
The Germany midfielder’s final act as a Metropolis participant — and because the crew’s captain — was to elevate the Champions League trophy, which accomplished a treble of main titles for the English membership.
Now, he’s heading to Spain on a two-year contract for a brand new expertise, though Pep Guardiola wished to maintain the 32-year-old Gundogan — the primary signing of the Metropolis supervisor’s period from 2016.
Having missed out on securing the return of Lionel Messi, Barcelona made the signing of Gundogan a precedence so as to add some expertise to a midfield already containing children Pedri González and Gavi Páez, two of its pillars going ahead, however not together with veteran chief Sergi Busquets, who’s leaving the membership.
Frenkie de Jong additionally performed an vital function final season for Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández, regardless of efforts by the membership to promote him within the offseason of 2022.
Gundogan’s arrival comes whereas debt-ridden Barcelona continues to be struggling to fulfill the Spanish league’s monetary guidelines. Solely just lately was it capable of finding a approach to formally register Gavi as a first-team participant. It’s broadly anticipated that the membership might want to promote gamers to cut back its bills, and the addition of Gundogan will solely add to that burden until compensated by exits.
Whereas Barcelona bought off a part of its future tv revenues and different property to have the money essential to signal Robert Lewandowski and different gamers final 12 months, its monetary issues have more and more pressured the membership to search out free brokers who need to come to Spain. Final 12 months, the crew picked up present gamers Andreas Christensen, Marcos Alonso and Franck Kessie on free transfers, whereas different free brokers like Memphis Depay have come and gone lately.
Metropolis was reportedly solely providing Gundogan a one-year deal, whereas he wished an extended contract for some safety for his household.
He’ll go down as a Metropolis nice, not only for being the crew’s captain in its biggest ever season however due to a number of the essential targets he scored and performances he delivered within the midfield, the place he might play box-to-box, as an anchorman or — in his favored function — as a participant supporting the striker.
No targets had been extra vital than the 2 he scored to finish Metropolis’s late comeback from 2-0 all the way down to Aston Villa on the ultimate day of the 2021-22 season, profitable the crew one other league title.
After becoming a member of from Borussia Dortmund, the place he was a Bundesliga champion in 2012, Gundogan received 5 Premier League titles, two FA Cups, 4 English League Cups and the Champions League with Metropolis.
He now arrives at a membership that received the Spanish league title final season however failed for a second straight marketing campaign to maneuver previous the group section of the Champions League.