The unfinished business of the introvert Gündogan

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Ilkay Gundogan drives the ball in a Premier League match.Visionhaus (Visionhaus via Getty Images)

Ilkay Gündogan (Gelsenkirchen, Germany; 32 years old) did not want to know anything about the last Champions League final. After finishing fleeced in the discount of the Bernabeu, he already announced in advance that another life plan would be sought while Madrid and Liverpool settled their affairs in Paris. "Only time can cure it," he settled laconic a year ago, a prisoner of frustration. The waiting time, his and that of Manchester City, can be shortened more than he imagined, although again the pending task goes through the white team.

The trance catches this German of Turkish origin (his parents emigrated in the eighties from Izmir to Dortmund) at a border moment of his career, hunting for the last great contract of his career. His link with the citizens expires in two months, Barcelona intends it – among others – and Guardiola still does not give it up in public. Meanwhile, this shy and introverted midfielder, raised in the fundamentals of combinative football, has decided to take chest to blow goals. So decisive has been revealed recently that, as revealed on Tuesday his teammate Kyle Walker, in the dressing room they joke saying "that in the last months [of competition] he becomes Zidane".

The final date against Carlo Ancelotti's boys at the Etihad is presented with the still latent impact of their last exhibition in the Premier League, last Sunday against Everton (0-3). After a rather swampy half hour from City, the German was showered with a ball in the middle of the toffee jungle and solved it with a wonderful strike with his back to the goal. Nothing was known of Haaland and he connected very soon after to the current with a great center for the 0-2. And on the return from the break, he closed the master session with subtlety in a frank blow. A week earlier, against Leeds, he had also scored both goals, although the excess of greed (and generosity of the Norwegian) to shoot (and miss) a penalty that did not touch him twisted the nose of the interventionist Pep. "You have to throw it away," he shouted to his new panzer.

Gundogan scores with his back to goal against Everton last Sunday. Jon Super (APS)

His four goals and two assists last week underline the goal-scoring nature of a Gündogan who made the associative game his mark of distinction and who is part of the Haaland elephant's supply battery. "He said he could play nine, people laughed," claimed the Catalan coach two years ago, when the German began to sharpen in the rival area. In his first four seasons, he stayed in 22 goals (a break of the crusader also stopped him in his tracks for nine months), while in the last three he registered 36. Last year, on the final day, he had to be the one to get his team out of the mud. He appeared with 0-2 against Aston Villa with half an hour left and scored a double to come back and win the Premier League.

Put into perspective, the figures of his signing seven seasons ago (27 million euros) are almost countercultural for this City, which in the same period has had a net expenditure of 665 million (discounting sales). It is only the 35th most expensive signing in the club's history; Since its signing, there have been 20 more expensive ones. It was the first to be announced in 2016 under the Guardiola era and now it's time to review his case.

Very close to Rüdiger

He has already acknowledged that he grew up under the ideological influence of the trio Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta, and Barcelona have him in the notebook as an outstanding reinforcement for the growth of their squad. At the Camp Nou there is no shortage of quality in an engine room very dependent on Pedri, and the German offers them precisely that and a letter of freedom that would soften the overall amount of the operation. In any case, it is not the only club that has asked about him. In the Premier League, the legal deadline for teams to open negotiations with a player who ends his contract will begin shortly (in Spain it started in January). "Nobody knows what's going to happen, maybe he'll stay. Hopefully. He is a guy who handles pressure well, really well," Guardiola said a few days ago.

This Wednesday, as he advances positions in the field towards the Madrid area, he will meet his compatriot and friend Antonio Rüdiger, united despite their almost opposite characters. Or, perhaps, precisely because of that. The defender, Haaland's windy marking in the first leg, is loquacious and with a mocking touch, while the middle takes refuge in discretion. "He does not talk much, but when he does everyone listens," Guardiola said of him on Sunday, who did not give him rest in the last two league clashes despite already exceeding thirty.

City's last training session was delayed by almost an hour in a Manchester that started strangely with sunshine and, little by little, was recovering its usual intemperate time. There, on a pitch attached to the Etihad, Gundo started the afternoon offside, fiddling under sticks and exchanging long balls with his coach. Against Madrid he will be needed for something else if he wants to close the past and lift his first Champions League.

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