Man City star almost quit football to play basketball

Martin Macdonald

• 23 Oct 2025 10:00 CDT
• 3 min read

News

Manchester City star Josko Gvardiol has confessed that he once considered quitting football in order to play basketball.

The Croatian is the second-most expensive defender in history behind Manchester United's Harry Maguire as Man City paid RB Leipzig £77 million for his services back in 2023.

After impressing with the German giants after a switch from Dinamo Zagreb, Gvardiol earned his big-money move to the Premier League and has been a stalwart of Pep Guardiola's side since.

Whether at centre-back or left-back, he always performs to an excellent standard.

Success came at City via a Premier League title victory, but things could have been so different for Gvardiol if he made a like-changing decision at just 16 years old.

"I was thinking about quitting because I like basketball as well," he told BBC Sport.

"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."

Gvardiol back to centre-back

Guardiola deployed Gvardiol as a left-back mostly last season and he flourished as no defender has scored more goals than him in the Premier League since his debut.

However, he has been moved back to centre-back for the 2025/26 season and that is where he feels most comfortable.

"I'm happy to be back to my position," he said. "Just play simple, protect the goal, defend the goal.

"Obviously we have new goals this season and we want to aim high. But I like to say that it's quite early to talk about our goals, the season is long so let's go game by game."

His reliability has been outstanding for City as last season he was in the top 10 players in the world for match day inclusions throughout the campaign.

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