Ilkay G\u00fcndogan has completed a move to Galatasaray after one year back at Manchester City. The 34-year-old left the Etihad following a summer agreement that ended his contract despite a clause that had automatically triggered a one-year extension after he reached a specified number of appearances.<\/p>\n
G\u00fcndogan made 54 appearances across all competitions during what the club described as the worst campaign of Guardiola\u2019s City tenure. His exit freed the club of a sizeable wage packet and helped trim a squad Guardiola has repeatedly described as too big.<\/p>\n
The transfer carried a strong personal element for G\u00fcndogan. He arrived in Istanbul to a rapturous reception and summed up his feelings plainly on social media: “I\u2019m reunited with my childhood love,” and “Happiness is being at Galatasaray.” The German-born midfielder has been open about his Turkish roots and the summers he spent visiting his grandparents.<\/p>\n
In an emotional farewell to City supporters, G\u00fcndogan explained the move combined sentiment and playing priorities, referring to the club he supported as a child: joining his “childhood favourite club, in a country that means so much to me.”<\/p>\n
He also set out his professional motives in a longer message. “Dear Cityzens, I want to be honest with you… the reason why I\u2019m leaving is very simple: I still want to play football as often as possible, because that\u2019s what I love the most,” he wrote. “I\u2019ll turn 35 soon, but I still feel very fit and I truly believe I can continue to perform at a high level for a Champions League team.”<\/p>\n
G\u00fcndogan acknowledged Manchester City\u2019s decision to refresh the squad: “Man City want a new beginning after an incredible era\u2014something I can fully understand and respect,” and paid tribute to the club\u2019s role in his career by adding, “I will never, ever forget what this great club has done for me over so many years.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ilkay G\u00fcndogan leaves Manchester City after year to join Galatasaray, citing roots and playing time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,172],"tags":[901],"class_list":["post-2442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-ilkay-gundogan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442","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=2442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}