Arsenal London striker Gabriel Jesus, on The Denilson Show podcast, recalled a story involving his team-mate, Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Aleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel JesusDuring the 2021/22 season, when both players played for Manchester City, that team played a home game against French side PSG (2-1). Jesus was in no doubt regarding his place in the starting line-up but as a result, he was left onside and Zinchenko was put in the starting line-up alongside him. According to the Brazilian, he was shocked by this decision of City manager Josep Guardiola and even brought to tears.
- We had a home Champions League game with PSG, in which Pep put Zinchenko at the position of a 'false nine'. It was crazy! Especially as the day before he had not even used Zinchenko at the training session, and put me as a forward...
I remember later, Zinchenko even joked with me: "That day, I felt sorry for you.
After I found out about the coach's decision, I could not even eat. I went to my room in tears, called my mother and said: "I want out. Can you imagine, he put Zinchenko in and left me in reserve. He chose me over a left-back. I'm just mad about it," recalled Jesus.
The Brazilian also noted that the situation was the final straw for him and prompted his decision to leave the club.
It should be added that in the aforementioned match, Jesus replaced Zinchenko and scored the winning goal.
