Manchester City fans must be wondering if their team is cursed when it comes to the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola’s side seemed headed for the final after Riyad Mahrez’s goal put them 1-0 up on the night and 5-3 up in the tie.
REAL MADRID HAS GONE AHEAD! 😮
And of course Karim Benzema had to get in on the goals! 🎯
This game is something else!#UCL pic.twitter.com/2XMX5teIhy
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 4, 2022
It has been 11 years since Guardiola last won the Champions League at Barcelona. This is despite the fact that he manages the biggest club in Germany, Bayern Munich, and is now the richest club in England since his time at the Camp Nou.
Is it because Guardiola has thought too much about his tactics in big European matches? Not according to the agent of his former player Yaya Toure, Dimitriy Seluk, that he has another explanation: the African curse.
Seluk’s comments from 2018 have resurfaced again, where he claimed the Catalan manager angered “all of Africa” ​​by benching the Ivory Coast international during the player’s final year at City.
“The [Guardiola] he turned all of Africa against him, many African fans turned their backs on Manchester City,” Seluk said.
And I am sure that many African shamans in the future will not allow Guardiola to win the Champions League.
“This will be an African curse for Guardiola. Life will tell if I’m right or not.”
Lots to unpack there. The shamans, who boast the power to summon good or evil spirits, definitely do not seem inclined to deny Guardiola glorious domestic success wherever he wants her to go. But Seluk is adamant.
“The fact that Guardiola ended Yaya’s career at Manchester City is not even a mistake, but a crime,” he added.
“But the boomerang will return, Pep.
“You will still see what African shamans are. Remember this always.”
Toure and Guardiola had a sometimes strained relationship, despite their success together. The Ivorian played in Pep’s first Champions League final victory in 2009, as a central defender in a 2-0 victory over Manchester United.
However, in 2010 he left Barça to sign for Manchester City and he did not have the best memories of his former coach.
Toure became a City legend for his displays in attacking midfield while at Man City, but in 2016, the pair’s paths crossed again when Guardiola arrived at the club.
Toure appeared fairly regularly during Guardiola’s first season at Manchester, but was a supporting player during 2017/18 and was allowed to leave the club at the end of the season, apparently angering the player’s agent and, if he is to be believed, to Seluk. – African shamans.
Whatever the reason, Guardiola and City will have to wait another year for a chance at Champions League glory.