Ilkay Gundogan will decide his future after the Champions League final. The Manchester City midfielder is fully focused on the clash with Inter and, as he has told his current club, who want to renew his deal, he will not make a decision until the end of the season. Should City win their first Champions League title, it will be after the celebrations in Manchester that the player will sit down with his agent, Ilhan Gundogan, to finalise all the options and make a decision.
As of today, Gundogan has four offers on the table and, of course, has not signed any of them. Nor has he made a verbal commitment to anyone. Talks with all clubs have been cordial, but there are no pre-contracts or anything like that. He will communicate his decision to all of them in the next ten days, with City being the first to know his final decision: whether to renew or not.
The four options on the table for Gundogan are as follows: Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona… and PSG. The French club have been the last to join the bidding at Julian Nagelsmann‘s request and has entered the battle for the player with great force. Although it is difficult to establish a ranking of priorities, the French proposal has been very interesting for the player.
Each club’s chances
Manchester City are doing everything possible to renew him, as Pep Guardiola is a huge fan of Gundogan. He is his captain and a player with whom he is friends off the pitch. Their football chats are a regular occurrence in Pep’s office and the two share the same playing philosophy, which has led to them hitting it off perfectly. For Guardiola, it would be a blow if he were to leave.
Another option is Arsenal. Talks with the Gunners have only just opened right now because of the Premier League’s transfer legislation on players coming to the end of their contracts. The deadline between teams in the English league does not open as it does in Spain on January 1 to avoid, precisely, controversies such as those of Cadiz and Getafe with Pacha Espino.
Mikel Arteta believes that with Gundogan, the team would make a leap in quality that would allow them to get even closer to the Premier League. Experience and talent for the midfield. Arteta knows him well from his time at City.
Barcelona are also in the fight and it is not out of the question that Gundogan could end up there. The proposal is interesting and there have been several meetings between the club and his agent and uncle Ilhan Gundogan.
Mateu Alemany is putting a lot of pressure on the club, as due to Barcelona’s economic situation they need players at zero cost. And a star like Gundogan is an unmissable market opportunity. However, despite everything that has been published, there is still no agreement with the player.
And as we pointed out earlier, the latest to join the fray has been PSG. The offer has arrived this week after the arrival of Nagelsmann. The Parisian team wants to build a serious team, with less focus on Galacticos and more on serious, determined, professional players, all of them conditions that the veteran midfielder meets.
Against this backdrop, it is difficult to say where Gundogan will play next season. He has the romantic option of staying with City or turning his career around by joining an elite club like Barcelona or two clubs that aspire to reign in England and in the Champions League respectively, like Arsenal or PSG
