It is his great goal each year. Although Pep Guardiola has won four of the last five Premier League titles and is on his way to another English league trophy, his biggest challenge each season is winning the UEFA Champions League. And it may finally happen this year because it seems that a supposed “curse of the African shamans” that weighed on him has ended.
Dimitri Seluk, a player agent who worked with Yaya Touré and fought years ago with Guardiola over his shorts with the Ivorian midfielder, apologized for his statements and has announced that this alleged spell so that the Catalan coach cannot win the Champions League had to come to an end.
“I want to apologize for this matter. I think it’s time for the bitterness to end, and I know Yaya Toure feels the same way because he wants nothing but success for Manchester City. I can say that the shamans have lifted the spell and that I believe City will win the Champions League with Pep,” Seluk said in a statement broadcast by The Mirror.
“They have a good chance to win it this year. But whatever happens, they will definitely win it in the next three years, ”predicted the representative who had revealed the curse in 2018.
The “African curse” that Seluk talks about arose in June 2018, when the agent charged Guardiola hard and said in an interview with Sport 24 that he would not win the Champions League again: “Because of his bad treatment of Yaya Touré, Guardiola turned all of Africa against him, many African fans turned their backs on Manchester City. And I am sure that many African shamans will prevent Guardiola from winning the Champions League in the future. It will be like an African curse for Guardiola. Life will tell if I’m right or not.”
All this controversy has also generated the reaction of Yaya Touré, who at 39 years old works as a coach at the Tottenham academy and is remembered as one of the best players of Guardiola’s time at Manchester City, where he played from 2010 to 2018. .
“My former agent is being quoted in the media about a ‘curse.’ Please don’t associate me with these nonsensical and lazy stereotypes about African curses. This man does not represent me in any way. Expanding these stereotypes is harmful”, the former Ivorian footballer, who coincided with the Catalan coach at Barcelona (2007-2010), where they were able to win the Champions League, posted on Twitter.
Guardiola has taken Manchester City to the next level this season with some tactical adjustments and the addition of Erling Haaland, who has 51 goals in 46 games in all competitions. His team, leader of the Premier League and finalist of the FA Cup, will have to overcome Real Madrid in the semifinals of the Champions League to dream of winning the title that has resisted them all these years.