Ilkay Gundogan said he had returned to the \u201cbest club in the world\u201d after re-signing for Manchester City from Barcelona on Friday.<\/p>\n
The former German international won five Premier League titles and the Champions League among 12 major trophies during his first spell at City between 2016 and 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n Gundogan departed the English champions just over a year ago to join Barca.<\/span><\/p>\n However, the 33-year-old and the Catalan giants reportedly agreed to rescind his contract after just one season to pave the way for a return to the Etihad.<\/span><\/p>\n In his sole season in Spain, Gundogan scored five goals and provided 14 assists but Barca failed to win a trophy.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am incredibly happy. Happy to see the teammates, the staff, people that over seven years I had an amazing time with, a very successful time with. Many ups, and a few downs, but in general, an incredible experience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you leave this place like I did last year, you spend a year away, and you then start to appreciate the place even more. You realise what you had. You realise how amazing that time was. You realise how big the club is \u2014 the best club in the world,\u201d Gundogan said in a City statement.<\/span><\/p>\n Gundogan\u2019s return is a timely boost for City after the departure of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid for a reported fee of up to 95 million euros (\u00a381 million, $104 million).<\/span><\/p>\n He was Pep Guardiola\u2019s first signing when both joined the club in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n Gundogan went on to score 60 goals in 304 appearances and will provide experience and depth to Guardiola\u2019s squad as they go for a record-extending fifth consecutive Premier League title.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIlkay is one of the finest professionals I have ever worked with. His dedication to football and his approach to every single training session is something special,\u201d said City\u2019s Director of Football Txiki Begiristain.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to bring him back here is fantastic news for everyone. He will help us in our main objective, which is to win trophies, but he will also be an inspiration to so many,\u201d Begiristain added.<\/span><\/p>\n Gundogan is City\u2019s second signing of the transfer window after the arrival of Brazilian winger\u00a0Savinho.<\/span><\/p>\n AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ilkay Gundogan said he had returned to the \u201cbest club in the world\u201d after re-signing for Manchester City from Barcelona on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19269,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19267\/revisions\/19269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}