Ilkay Gündogan's 'soap opera' with FC Barcelona is beginning to enter its final stages. The German's departure from Barcelona is imminent, and although everything indicated that he would continue wearing the Barça shirt next season, the player finally decided to leave the club and has made returning to Manchester City a priority. For this reason, the midfielder himself contacted Pep Guardiola and the 'skyblue' entity last Monday to personally ask them to accelerate his signing.
According to the 'Què t'hi jugues' program on Cadena SER, the Sampedor one, who already wanted to retain him last summer before he joined Barça, has given his approval and would be delighted to have him again. He was their captain in the Champions League won in 2022, so the operation will be closed in the coming days. However, the footballer wants to end his time in the Barça squad on the best possible terms and his attitude towards the team will not change, thus achieving a cordial departure.
For his part, from the offices of the Spotify Camp Nou they will facilitate the return of 'Gündo' to the Etihad Stadium, since his departure is well seen to free up salary mass. The midfielder could leave the Catalan dressing room with the freedom letter under his arm and join the 'Citizen' team at zero cost, a scenario that Ilkay would have already communicated to Pep during their conversation, in which he would have promised that the Blaugranas would let him leave without having to pay an amount for the transfer.
Thus, Hansi Flick would lose the man who was the 'MVP' of the squad last season. Gündogan was the player with the most games played (51) and the most minutes accumulated (4,180) in his first, and apparently last, season as a culé, registering 5 goals and 14 assists and consolidating himself as one of the great leaders of the team and the most differential in the three-quarter zone. Despite this, at 33 years old he observed some movements in the club that have raised doubts in him, the arrival of Dani Olmo being the final 'strike' that ended up leading to his departure from Barcelona.
Gündogan wants to continue having a leading role
The midfielder has been linked to a possible transfer since the beginning of the summer, with Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe keeping an eye on his situation, as well as considering some options from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These rumors, added to the fact that the Barça entity hired a player for its best position and that Flick could not guarantee him the same number of minutes that Xavi gave him the previous campaign, were decisive for the German to determine that it was best for him. It is a change of scenery this summer, since it does not want to be a problem for anyone, neither on a sporting nor economic level.
According to 'SPORT', the midfielder has perceived that Barça's intention was always to get rid of him to save his high salary. Furthermore, Guardiola has guaranteed him an important role in which he will have minutes, so 'Gündo' welcomes his return to the team where he won everything and remained for seven years. The operation could be resolved in the next few hours and would leave the Catalans with a week of margin to resolve their pending market portfolios with sufficient salary space.
Olmo, the great beneficiary
And the moment Ilkay's departure becomes official, the Catalans will be able to use 70% of their 20 million euros gross deposit to reinvest in a new registration. This represents an amount of 14 'kilos' for the institution to complete the registration of Dani Olmo, if possible, before Saturday's duel against Athletic Club in Montjuïc. In this way, the Egarense would be the great beneficiary of the operation, not only from an economic point of view, since in sports he would have one less 'rival' in his preferred area on the field.