Pep Guardiola Clarifies Joao Cancels’s Future At Man City

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has revealed that the club’s defender, Joao Cancelo could return to FC Barcelona ahead of the 2024-2025 season.

Recall that Manchester City paid Juventus a whopping €65 million to sign Joao Cancelo on August 7, 2019. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to win the heart of coach Pep Guardiola.

Hence, the 30-year-old Portuguese left-back spent the second half of the 2022-2023 season on loan at Bayern Munich.

After the half-season loan spell at Bayern, Cancelo moved to FC Barcelona on loan for the just-concluded 2023-2024 season.

In the said season, Joao Cancelo played 42 games in all competitions in which he scored four goals and provided five assists.

Due to how important he was at the club, the Spanish giants are making efforts to keep him at the club beyond this summer and it seems Manchester City are open to that possibility.

“It has to be the best for everyone,” Pep Guardiola said according to a UK publication, the Mirror.

“The two clubs will sit down. He is our player and, if an agreement is not reached, he will have to return in the pre-season.

“If he wants to stay [at Barcelona], and the clubs agree, it will be done again.”

Note that the current contract between Manchester City and Joao Cancelo will expire on June 30, 2027.