‘Almost lost my temper’ – Barcelona star admits he wanted to leave for Pep Guardiola’s Man City | OneFootball

Barcelona star Marc-André ter Stegen has this week admitted that, at one point during his Blaugrana stint, he set his sights firmly on a depature from the club.

This came amid a concerted push for his signature on the part of Manchester City.

Ter Stegen made an appearance on Bild’s Phrasenmäher podcast this week, during which the German international was drawn on a whole host of topics.

The 32-year-old opened up on everything from problems between he and Lionel Messi to the hair transplant procedure he underwent, and beyond.

It is the subject of his near exit from Catalunya’s capital all the way back in 2016, though, which has since piqued most widespread attention.

This comes with Ter Stegen having admitted that, after sitting down for a meeting with Pep Guardiola, he had every intention of making the move to England, with Manchester City:

“It was a time when I wasn’t happy with the situation at Barça, because although we had won many titles, I hadn’t played in La Liga. I wanted to be the undisputed number one. We even had a meeting in Barcelona. Pep flew here and then we met at a friend’s house. He explained his ideas to me and told me that he would sign for Manchester City that summer and that he would love to have me there with him. Pep made a great effort. Then I thought about it and said to myself that this could be the solution to my problem, and that the plan they had at City seemed very interesting to me. Looking back over the last few years, it has worked perfectly.”

Barcelona’s sidelined shot-stopper, as per Mundo Deportivo, continued:

“At one point, I went to see Luis Enrique and told him that I wanted to be released. Luis Enrique replied to me: “I’m not going to release you!” He also said that he would tell the club that they should not let me go under any circumstances. I replied that, on the one hand, I was very grateful, but on the other, I wanted to be number one. When he said that we should see how the preseason went, I almost lost my temper, but I managed to control myself. The board also said that they would not release me under any circumstances.”

Conor Laird – GSFN