Gabriel Jesus has revealed that he decided to leave Manchester City after coach Pep Guardiola made him cry by leaving him out of the starting lineup in a Champions League game.
The 26-year-old spent five trophy-laden years at the Etihad Stadium between 2017 and 2022, winning four Premier League titles as well as scoring 95 goals and providing 46 assists in 236 appearances across all competitions.
Jesus was regarded by many as the heir to legendary striker Sergio Aguero at Man City, but the Brazilian called time on his spell with the Citizens in search of regular first-team football and joined Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal for around £45m last summer.
Before departing the Etihad, Jesus was the only recognized striker at Man City, but he preferred to operate out wide under Guardiola, leaving the Catalan boss without a natural focal point before the arrival of Erling Haaland.
Speaking to the “Denilson Show” podcast, Gabriel Jesus said the turning point in his City career came during their home game against Paris Saint-Germain in November 2021 when he was named on the bench by Pep Guardiola.
Jesus replaced Zinchenko in the second half and set up the equaliser before scoring a late winner to give City a 2-1 win.
He said;
“There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put [Oleksandr] Zinchenko as a false 9. Crazy thing. The day before, he didn’t even use [Zinchenko] in training, he had put me in as a striker. … Zinchenko even joked with me: ‘that day I felt bad for you.’
“Two hours before the game, there’s a team talk, the team eats, rests for 30 minutes, and goes to the game. He told us the team, 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, and he didn’t put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy.
“I didn’t warm up, I felt bad. Five minutes after [Kylian] 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.”
Jesus joined City in January 2017 from Palmeiras and won 11 titles with the Manchester club.
During his debut campaign at Arsenal, he scored 11 goals and set up seven more in 26 league appearances as they finished runners-up to City in the Premier League.
