"I was thinking about quitting because I like basketball as well,"
"I wasn't sure in football any more because when you get to the training ground you don't feel happy any more, you know? "I was just trying to find other solutions and to feel happier than I felt before because all of my friends were playing basketball.""
"My dream obviously was to become a professional football player, but I didn't know that I was going to go that far. "If you go five years back and ask me, do you see yourself at Manchester City in 2023, '24, '25? I would say no chance, like really impossible.""
Josko Gvardiol considered quitting football at 16 because he enjoyed basketball and lacked playing time in Dinamo Zagreb's youth team. He felt unhappy at training and sought alternatives while many friends played basketball. Gvardiol eventually broke into Dinamo Zagreb's senior team, won back-to-back domestic titles and completed a league-and-cup double before moving to RB Leipzig for a reported €16m, a record for a Croatian teenager. After 87 appearances in Germany, he signed a five-year deal with Manchester City in August 2023 for about £77m and became an important, goal-scoring component of Guardiola's defence.
Read at www.bbc.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]