The captain of Barcelona, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, has revealed that the conversations of face to face with Pep Guardiola Fast from Camp Nou and Manchester City.
After making his name in three seasons as Starter Borussia Monchengladbach, he was 22 years old in 2014 when he left Germany to Barcelona. However, the Catalans also signed Claudio Bravo in the same summer and the couple had to share the season.
Bravo got the nod in La Liga, while Ter Sten played 21 times in the Champions League and Copa del Rey. In the following campaign he led seven league appearances, but it was still a situation that had frustrated the younger goalkeeper and seriously explored a transfer.
“We actually considered changing clubs,” said Ter Stegen PictureReview of the summer of 2016, the Guardiola’s first as head of Manchester City.
“We even had a meeting in Barcelona. Pep flew over, and then we met in a friend’s house. He explained his ideas and told me that he would come to Manchester City this summer and he would like to have me. Pep really tried.”
“I thought” this could be the solution to my problem “and the plan you had in the city [for them]. “
In the end it was Barcelona coach Luis Enrique who ended things by informing ter Stegen that he was not allowed to go.
“I replied that I was very valued on the one hand, but on the other hand I wanted to be the number 1,” said Ter Stegen. “When he said we would see how the previous season was going, I almost lost mastery, but I held it together. I said: ‘This is now my wish and I will inform the board.’
“The board also said that they would not release me under any circumstances. And then PEP signed my teammate Claudio Bravo for Manchester City three weeks later. At first it was strange, but in the end I was very happy because I really didn’t want to go and I became the number 1.”
Bravo fought in the Premier League and only lasted one season before City 2017 spent a lot of money for Ederson. Ter Stgen has now achieved 420 Barcelona games and was appointed Club captain in 2024 after he had come to the management group of the management group of the squad two years earlier.