Gabriel Jesus has revealed a snub by Pep Guardiola for a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain that left him 'crazy' and in tears was the moment he knew he wanted to leave the club, going on to join Arsenal in a £45m transfer seven months later.
PSG made the trip to the Etihad Stadium in November 2021 for a group stage clash with Jesus expecting to start after being used as the main striker in training the day before. However, Guardiola ending up selecting Oleksandr Zinchenko as a false nine.
The City boss has gained a reputation over the years for making what seem like bizarre tactical choices in a bid to out-think his opposite number. That one was particularly sore for Jesus.
"There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put Zinchenko as a false nine. Crazy thing," Jesus explained during an appearance on The Denilson Show.
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"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."
Jesus also admitted he didn't even warm-up but was soon called on after Kylian Mbappe had given PSG a lead shortly after half-time. Within minutes of coming on, the Brazilian had assisted an equaliser for Raheem Sterling and then scored the winning goal himself.
"I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next [Champions League] game [against RB Leipzig] , I thought I was going to play, and I didn't play. There was a lot of that with [Guardiola], and it's not easy. It's really hard. That's when I decided to leave...I didn't want to stay anymore."
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This article was originally published on 90min as Gabriel Jesus reveals the moment he decided to leave Man City.