Iliman Ndiaye has opened up on the decision to join Manchester City, insisting that once their interest was clear, the move became straightforward despite Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s push for his signature.<\/p>\n
Spurs had been working on an attacking rebuild and, after their 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United, reports suggested a deal for the Senegalese international had been agreed. City, however, moved decisively and secured the player, who has now explained why he was drawn to the champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always say whatever comes, comes. God decides your future; it\u2019s already written. I was just being patient, and when City came through, I was buzzing,\u201d Ndiaye said, in quotes relayed by the Manchester Evening News.<\/p>\n
He made clear that the attraction was not only the size of the club, but also the footballing step it offered. \u201cThis is where I think I belong. I\u2019ve worked hard to get to this point. When I was speaking with my wife, I was telling her that if I had to leave Everton, it would be somewhere where I know I would be playing Champions League ,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
City had previously explored a move for Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo, but ultimately chose against pursuing that route after the Dutchman was kept in place and an \u00a380 million ($108 million) offer was rejected.<\/p>\n
For Ndiaye, the appeal of Champions League football was decisive. He has not yet played in the competition, and his former club Marseille were eliminated in the third qualifying round by Panathinaikos in 2023-24 shortly after he joined them. He then moved to Everton the following summer.<\/p>\n
That context made the timing significant, especially with Tottenham not involved in European competition during 2026-27. \u201cFor me, it was always going to be City,” Ndiaye added. \u201cI wanted Champions League and playing at one of the best teams in the world. I\u2019m not saying Tottenham is not, but when Manchester City comes through, you don\u2019t say no.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Erling Haaland was struck by Ndiaye\u2019s debut display, calling his dribbling \u201camazing to see\u201d, while manager Enzo Maresca took a more measured view of the winger\u2019s performance. City\u2019s early-season shape has looked fluid, even if Maresca remains a coach who prefers clear positional instructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ndiaye says Champions League football made Manchester City the clear choice over Tottenham this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,187],"tags":[1047,180,182],"class_list":["post-19284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-champions-league","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}