Revealed: Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus decided to leave Man City after Pep Guardiola made him cry – with Oleksandr Zinchenko also involved

• Striker won 11 trophies with the Blues
• Dropped for Champions League game
• Ended up moving to north London

WHAT HAPPENED? The Brazil international decided that he needed to start looking for a way out of the Etihad Stadium in November 2021. He was named on the bench for a crunch Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain despite being of the opinion that he should be included from the off. Guardiola decided to field Oleksandr Zinchenko as a false nine in that contest, despite the Ukrainian being a natural left-back, and Jesus was left in tears as it became clear that he was no longer integral to City’s plans.

WHAT THEY SAID: Jesus, who ended up joining Arsenal in the summer of 2022, has told The Denilson Show: “There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put Zinchenko as a false nine. Crazy thing. The day before, he didn't even use him [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 him [Zinchenko] on, and he didn't put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Jesus did replace Zinchenko in said meeting with PSG, scoring one and laying on another in a 2-1 victory for City, but his mind had been made up. The South American added: “I didn't warm up. I felt bad. Five minutes after Kylian Mbappe scored the goal for 1-0, he [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 any more. And I decided to leave.”

IN THREE PHOTOS:

Getty Images

Getty Images

Getty Images

WHAT NEXT? Jesus won 11 trophies during his time at City, having joined them from Palmeiras in January 2017, and registered 11 goals during an injury-hit debut season at Arsenal in 2022-23 – with Zinchenko joining him at Emirates Stadium after completing his own transfer from Manchester.