Gvardiol Nearly Quit Before £77m Man City Move

Josko Gvardiol revealed he nearly quit football at 16 to play basketball because he was getting few minutes at Dinamo Zagreb and “didn’t feel happy” at training. He persevered, broke into Dinamo’s first team and won back-to-back league titles before moving to RB Leipzig for a £16m fee, a record for a Croatian teenager. After two seasons at Leipzig he joined Manchester City for £77m in August 2023, becoming the second-most expensive defender ever. At City he has been a regular under Pep Guardiola, featuring in 55 of 61 matches last season and able to play both centre-back and left-back. His return to a natural centre-back role has helped stabilise City’s defence and he has contributed goals, emerging as one of the Premier League’s most influential defenders.