Manchester City Accepts Ilkay Gundogan Return From FC Barcelona

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has accepted the potential return of FC Barcelona midfielder Ilkay Gundogan to his team according to transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano, who cited anonymous sources on X.

“Understand Pep Guardiola has already approved Ilkay Gundogan’s return to Manchester City,” Romano tweeted on Tuesday morning in Europe.

“Pep wants Gundo back as talks are now taking place with his camp, first contact [was] made yesterday. [The] decision [is] up to Gundogan, as he has proposals also from Saudi/Qatar; Man City, on it,” the Italian added.

Gundogan has been linked with a move away from Barca since the start of the summer, but talk of a possible exit has gone into overdrive in recent days.

First the veteran was left out of Hansi Flick’s Matchday 1 squad to face Valencia, though well-informed source Gerard Romero claimed that the development had taken place because Gundogan was recovering from a blow to the face he received in the second half of Barca’s 3-0 loss to AS Monaco in the Joan Gamper Trophy match.

Others including RAC1‘s Marta Ramon reported that the decision was a means of putting pressure on Gundogan to leave the club, though.

Barca is encountering problems navigating Financial Fair Play limits, and getting one of the highest salaries off the pay roll, which is Gundogan’s, would go a long way towards registering new players such as Dani Olmo.

Gundogan took to X ,formerly known as Twitter, to congratulate his teammates for their heroic 2-1 comeback win at the Mestalla while head coach Flick shed light on a conversation the two men had and stated a belief to Spanish television that a figure he once made captain of the German national team will stay on.

On Sunday, though, Radio Catalunya reported that Gundogan had contacted City, where he spent seven years from 2016 to 2023, to sound out a possible return a few days before his case became front and centre.

Cadena SER then discussed how Gundogan has accepted a proposal to leave a club he’s only spent a year at, and it seems that City is now open to its captain of an unprecedented treble in 2022/2023 wearing its shirt once more.